SPOCK BECOMES A PIRATE

 

Name: Black Fire

Author: Sonni Cooper

Publication Date: 1/1983

Publisher: Pocket Books (Star Trek #8)

Page Number: 220

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 Alexander Leonidas                     Lieutenant Commander Thorin Martin                    Lieutenant Commander Heath Douglas                     Lieutenant  Hikaru Sulu              Lieutenant Nyota Uhura              Lieutenant Kyle           Lieutenant Lowry                    Lieutenant Gordon            Dr. Joseph M'Benga        Dr. Jonah Levine                       Nurse Christine Chapel          Ensign Pavel Chekov      Yeoman First Class Janice Rand            Yeoman Second Class Yolanda Helman                Commodore Pierce                   Commodore Kingston Clark              Commodore Bragg                          Fleet Captain Iko Tomako                Lieutenant Ellen Janest                     Commander Bryant           Dr. Lucas Freed               Tim Macklen AKA Bull          Cadet Cathy White                      Supreme Commander Desus       Commander Julina      Sub-Commander Placus      Weapons Officer Delus        Commander Klee         Lieutenant Commander Melnek       Lieutenant Kasus     The Romulan Fleet Commander                           Begum Isla       IIob        Captain Astro        Galicia        Linia     Commander Relos      Harry Needham     Impertor Melek         Clea

Starships and/or Starbases: USS Enterprise NCC-1701, USS Raven (registry unknown), Starbase 12, ChR Bird of Prey, ChR Moonhawk, ChR Space Hawk, ChR Sun Falcon, IKS Force, Talon, and Equus

Planets: Corsair, Minos, Paxas, Romulus, Rontelm, and Tomarii

My Spoiler filled summary and review: The story starts with a bang quite literally with an explosion on the bridge of the ship.  There were some redshirt casualties in addition to many of the senior staff of the Enterprise being severally injured.  They are all in intensive care, with Spock being the only one consciousness, aware, and giving McCoy hell for wanting to return to work.  Because of the massive damage the ship has to get everyone to the secondary hull and perform an emergency saucer separation.  The star drive section returns to Starbase 12 to recover and await the return of the main section.

Enterprise crew in bad shape

  

Once Spock is able to leave sickbay, he launches his own investigation into the matter.  With the assistance of Mr. Scott, the two of them return to the abandoned saucer section of the Enterprise to investigate. While they are going through their home wearing spacesuits, they gather some evidence that includes a star chart, and they even have a suspect: Yeoman Isabel Tomari.  This Yeoman prior to this mission didn’t exist.  The return to Starfleet expecting action.

Starfleet holds an inquiry into the disaster, they find Spock’s evidence to be insignificant.  They conclude that the explosion was accidentally in nature.  Spock doesn’t accept the outcome.  He is as outraged as a Vulcan can possibly be.  He decides to continue this investigation unofficially.  Scotty continues to assist him.  Spock for the second time in his life decides to steal a starship.  The two officers steal the small USS Raven that at the time was unattended as its tiny crew were all on leave.  Spock uses the star chart they uncovered to set his destination.  Arriving at an unexplored planet, Spock and Scotty explore a little bit and get captured by some Romulans.  The Romulans, led by Commander Julina, accuse the Federation of a terrorist attack on one of their vessels.  Their claims, however, sound remarkably like what happened to the Enterprise.  Shortly after Klingons, led by Commander Klee, show up leveling the same charges at the other two.  

Looking into the incident

The three parties decided to call a truce and share information.  While they discuss events and introduce themselves suddenly, they find themselves face to face with their actual enemy.  They are called the Tomarii.  They are humanoids with a lot of fur from a cold planet.  They no longer live there primarily.  Because they reproduce so fast and compete over resources, they are extremely warlike.  They care almost nothing for even their own individual lives, they just attack and compete for resources.  This has led them to having an odd state of technological development.  They have the speed and power to compete with other space powers, but they need rocket ships to get themselves off planet.  The Tomarii take all three groups as prisoners.  The Tomarii decide to use them in their wargames as further test of each of their abilities.  

During the wargames the Klingons do the best.  Their culture and the Tomarii are not so different.  One of the Romulans is killed in the games.  Scotty is doing well and gets along with his guard Ilob.  Scotty is hoping that a friendly relationship would perhaps lead to greater understanding between their peoples.  Of course, while Scotty’s guard likes him, Spock’s guard, the Begum Isla is actually in love with him.  She has competition for the second time in history a Romulan Commander is falling in love with Spock.  Julina finds out about her predecessor when doing a mind meld with Spock.  The mind meld was used to help Spock deal with massive pain.  He still has some shrapnel in his body that needed to removed surgery, but he didn’t wait for it.  Although the mind meld helped with the pain it will not stop the consequences as the shrapnel has moved into Spock’s spin disabling him. 

Spock in bad shape

Spock notices that his condition has prevented the others from adequately forming an escape plan, for they are trying to take into account how to save him too.  Spock decides the only logical thing to do was commit suicide.  He convinces Julina of his decision, and she agrees to help him.  However, Isla shows up in time to “rescue” Spock and kills the Romulan Commander.

Back at Starbase 12 Captain Kirk has now recovered from his injuries and is looking forward to getting back to his ship.  When he gets there, he finds that things are different.  Everyone is wearing the new uniforms and there is a new color scheme.  Kirk expected that he didn’t expect to have two of his key officers replaced.  It turns out Kirk was so badly injured that no one wanted to tell him while he recovered: that Spock and Scotty had stolen a ship and gone missing.  Three new officers are aboard to replace the two.  Lieutenant Commanders Leonidas (first officer), Martin (science officer), and Douglas (chief engineer) are the new people Kirk has to meet and work with. 

Everyone's dressing differently now!

Kirk then goes on a personal mission to find Mr. Spock and finds an encoded message from his former first officer.  Spock explains what he is doing and asks Kirk not to follow them.  Of course, Kirk does.  The Captain makes all sorts of excuses to put the Enterprise near to the location that Spock indicated on his star chart.  From there they follow a series of clues that leads to them locating the Tomarii homeworld.  They arrive just in the nick of time as Spock has another attempted suicide.  The Enterprise rescues Spock and Scotty logged the location of the planet and got the hell out of there.  Because of their fugitive status, Kirk has them confined to quarters with the first officer objecting saying he needed to go to the brig.  It turns out he was right because Spock, having been cured of his paralysis by Dr. McCoy, snuck into Auxiliary Control and contacted the Klingons and Romulans with updated information about the Tomarii.  Spock explains but Kirk has to place him in the brig now.

Spock and Scotty are put on trial for their alleged crimes.  Spock pleads guilty but says his guilt is technical and that he was acting on behalf of Starfleet and the Federation.  Spock also insists that Scotty, who had pleaded not guilty, was just obeying his orders. The defense tries to argue that what was learned is valuable for the security of this entire side of the galaxy.  The tribunal finds Scotty not guilty but liable for bad judgment.  He was suspended from starship duty for a year and demoted to lieutenant.  Spock, however, is found guilty, dishonorably discharged from Starfleet, and sentenced to five years in prison. 

Spock explaining himself at trial 

Spock tells Kirk not to contact his family and he politely goes to prison.  At this point the book gives us all the prison tropes.  From the natural unpleasant and demeaning searches, the horrible prison jobs, and the big mean prisoner, named Bull Macklen, who Spock is going to have to take out in order to win respect.  While fighting Macklen, Spock befriends a captured Romulan pirate named Desus.  Spock begins to think of him as a Romulan Kirk.  Spock decides he doesn’t like being in prison, so he decides it’s time to escape.

Prisoner Spock choosing to escape

Spock and his new substitute Kirk friend, Desus, escape prison and go to where Desus had dealings before.  They secure two vessels on the black market.  They transform them into pirate vessels intent on looting and plunder.  Each takes the name “Captain Black Fire” so they can double the reputation of the name.  Kind of like the Dreed Pirate Roberts from The Princess Bride, ten years after the book and four years before the movie.  The difference being that these two operate at the same time.  The two are instantly successful as pirates, at one point earning the jealousy of another pirate.  The jealous pirate lost a showdown with Spock making Captain Black Fire even more legendary. This continues until Spock is almost captured by the Enterprise. The two pirates escape to Romulus.  Where Spock is arrested again. 

Spock's new life.

Desus is now revealed to be Supreme Commander Desus who had the whole time been spying on the pirates for the Romulan Star Empire.  Desus convinces his fellow Romulans to accept Spock now as one of their own.  Spock is now a Sub-Commander in the Romulan military.  Back on the Enterprise, Kirk requests a new chief engineer, as he has not warmed to Douglas.  To his surprise they send him Scotty restored to his prior rank as if nothing had happened at all.

Spock convinces his new friend and commanding officer that in order to defeat the Tomarii threat then they must form a temporary alliance with the Federation.  When they make contact Kirk is somewhat shocked to see Spock in that uniform but agrees to the alliance. They basically close both openings to the Tomarii’s secret planet.  The Federation wants to help them keep their population under control and learn to live peacefully in the universe.  If they don’t the Romulans will destroy them.  The agreement is made, and peace is achieved.  Spock later asks Kirk to place the Enterprise outside of the Neutral Zone at a later date.  Kirk does this and it turns out to be Spock’s escape attempt.  He shows up in a Romulan shuttle giving out a distress code. While loading the Tomarii to the Enterprise, Spock also put in information about Romulan ships.  He has Kirk take the Enterprise out of the Romulans’ set trap.

They get the Romulans one more time

Spock informs Kirk that he was on a special mission from Starfleet to act as a double agent in order to get the goods on the Tomarii, the pirates, and the Romulans. Kirk is glad this (for him) confusing adventure is over.

Additional thoughts: It is very interesting that after Spock’s death in the engine room of the Enterprise at the end of The Wrath of Khan the very first book published after—not counting the movie novelization—happens to be a book that focuses primarily on Spock.  It is almost as if the author is trying to say something about the loss of this particular character.

We object to his loss!

In the episode “The Apple” Kirk orders a possible saucer separation in order to escape the planet Gamma Trianguli VI.  There Kirk tells Scotty to leave the star drive and get out with the main section. In this book the main section has been damaged, and the crew has to escape in the star drive.  This sucks because it is not meant to house an entire crew. Later when Spock and Scotty return to the saucer section in space suits it has an eerie feeling about it.  Fortunately, they were able to recover and get the section reattached.

The very brief appearance with the Romulan Fleet Commander from “The Enterprise Incident” worked well.  She was still angry with Spock, because according to her she lost rank and status because of what had occurred.  This makes more sense than her appearance in the book The Price of the Phoenix, she is just way too friendly with them for my liking.  This is how she should react upon seeing Spock.  Of course, this would have to set this book and the former book into separate realties.  Unless what the Fleet Commander is angry about here is not the stolen cloaking device but rather blame, she assigns Spock for the loss of her Kirk-clone Romulan boytoy from The Fate of the Phoenix. 

She is not happy with him!

It is interesting how Spock keeps referring to Desus as being Kirk-like.  However, that only got that Romulan so far as Spock points out that his betrayal will most likely cause his friend to lose his life.  Cold Spock, cold. The book also tends to forget that Spock’s relationship with McCoy is just as important as his relationship with Kirk.

In the book we see the crew changed from their classic uniforms to the ones that we saw in The Motion Picture.  In addition to that, repairs to the Enterprise give the ship the feel of its movie refit.  I think both are mistakes.  The first is unnecessary and the other tries to give an explanation where none was really needed.  The ship’s overhaul in the first movie is explained well in the first movie.  They were already getting done with it at the start of the film. 

Although this is a good story, I have an issue with the time it needs to take place. I have this same objection to the short story, Mind Sifter, it’s a great story but it takes a huge chunk of time out of what is a five-year mission.  It seems to me the story takes place for a minimum of four months. It may have been a better idea put this adventure as part of the second five-year mission that took place in-between The Motion Picture and The Wrath of Kahn.  Those five years are mostly unexplored and could fit in a story like this.

The end twist was good.  Normally the way a judge a good twist is when you don’t see it coming but after it does when you go back and rewatch or reread something it is clear and obvious.  Now we know right from the beginning that Spock is not going to turn traitor, not simply because he is a star but know from the last film that he is supposed to become the Captain of the Enterprise and die in the engineering room.  However, the twist was how this was all going to come about.  I had suspected that the Tomarii had somehow infiltrated the highest points in Federation government and was now controlling Starfleet.  As we got to the end of the book it was clear that could not be the case because we were out of space.  When Spock reveals he was a double agent this whole time it is shocking but it fits.  The clues are there such as Starfleet’s reluctance to do anything about the Tomarii threat despite Spock’s returned with clear evidence of it.  Kirk himself is shown to be confused by Starfleet’s lack of initiative.   That Spock was able to escape from the Federation prison so easily was another clue, I assumed it was plot armor but they just let him go.  The biggest hint was Scotty’s punishment suddenly erased. 

Not the first time a Spock "betrayal" ends in a twist!

Boy, the Romulans thought they hated Spock from before.  So, they first truly encounter Spock in “The Enterprise Incident” he was there for “Balance of Terror” but he had no interaction with any Romulan directly.  In the follow up he gets the Romulan Fleet Commander to think he has killed Captain Kirk and that he maybe willing to join the Romulan Star Empire.  However, it all turns out to be a ploy to steal their cloaking device.  Now he has done it again!  They fell for it again!  Desus is so confident in his buddy Spock that it never occurs to him that he could betray him.  Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.

They must feel like fools!

So, what came of Spock’s replacements Leonidas and Martin?  We know Spock gets his job back, but the book ends without the readers getting any insight into their fates.   

Should it be canon: Maybe.  Some details might have to be changed. As I said earlier, I would like to see the story moved to the post-TMP time period.

Cover Art: The cover art is nice but a little misleading.  To glance at it one would assume that the book to place in after The Motion Picture.  Kirk is in his admiral’s uniform from that film.  Kirk is on the viewer’s left-hand side at the bottom.  Behind Kirk is a planet, Spock is located on the right-side bottom.  On top is the refitted USS Enterprise trying to evade two Romulan D-7Rs that are firing upon her.   

Final Grade: Final Grade 4 of 5