TWICE IMPRISONED

 

Name: Dwellers in the Crucible

Author: Margaret Wander Bonanno

Publication Date: 9/1985

Publisher: Pocket Books (Star Trek #25)

Page Number: 308

Historian’s Note: Sometime during The Wrath of Khan

Cast of Characters:  Rear Admiral James T. Kirk       Captain Spock              Dr. Leonard H. McCoy AKA “Bones”              Commander Montgomery Scott AKA “Scotty”       Commander Hikaru Sulu              Commander Nyota Uhura            Lieutenant (junior grade) Saavik      Ensign Chen          Fleet Admiral Heihachiro Nogura           Commodore José Mendez             Commander Mai-Ling Hong            Commander Tamerlane Hong         Special Agent Gadj          Cleante al-Faisal               T'Shael           Jali'lar Kandowali              Krnsandor L'am                    Resh'da Maprida'hn                   Theras shoorShras              Salet              Sekal                 Sethan          Stalek             Stimm                  T'Pei               T'Sehn                   Dr.  Palmer     Admiral Korax                Lord Tolz Kenran              Lord Krazz                   Commander Kalor                 Imperial Security Chief Dr'ell             Imperial Defense Minister Lefv               Admiral-Superlative Meru'th                    The Romulan Fleet Commander                Subcommander Tal            Centurion Delar            Chamberlin Garefv m'kh                 Unnamed Sulamids

Starships and/or Starbases: USS Enterprise NCC-1701, Galileo III NCC-1701/3, Starbase 11, USS Horizon (registry unknown), IKS Flyer's Pride, ChR Gauntlet, IKS Irik, and IKS Kalash

Planets: Earth and Vulcan

My Spoiler filled summary and review: The story opens with a kidnapping.  The kidnaped are a human named Cleante al-Faisal, a Vulcan named T'Shael, and Andorian and some Deltans.  These individuals are the Warrantors of the Peace an idea the Vulcans came up with in the time of Surak.  The Warrantors are voluntary hostages of sorts.  They are family members of government officials of various Federation member worlds.  They would first to die if their worlds attacked one of its neighbors.  Realizing that kidnapping them could be used to destabilize the Federation the Romulans and the Klingons plan to do just that.   The Romulans do the kidnapping while the Klingons hold them.

Klingons and Romulans looking to kidnap

 

The bulk of the story is told between the two main warrantors Cleante and T’Shael.  The book often flows back and forth between the present and the past.  The audience sees Cleante and T’Shael’s backstory.  They met at the Warrantors headquarters on Vulcan and formed an unlikely friendship. T’Shael leads a lonely life with a distant mother and a father who is caring but dying.  Her father is a famous musician known as the gifted one.  Her mother leaves them to serve on the Intrepid and she dies when it is destroyed by that large single-celled organism from “The Immunity Syndrome.”  Her dying father has to break the news to her that she will soon have no parents at all.  Having no family leads her to volunteer for warrantor status.

The story shifts to our normal set of heroes, who have the entire situation explained to them while being told not to do anything about it.  This becomes a recurring thing whenever the audience comes back to the Enterprise.

Two Klingons in charge of the prisoners.  They are Lord Krazz and Commander Kalor.  Trusted with such important prisoners who may be able to allow the Klingons and Romulans to bring the Federation to its knees, the two Klingons decide their physical passions are more important and try to rape the prisoners.  They are stopped however because of the mental powers of the Deltans overwhelm the Klingons, so they abandon the rape attempt.

Klingons being evil

Despite the Deltan save, the Andorian warrantor dies.  This causes protest from Andor and the Romulans themselves are upset.  On the Enterprise the crew is briefed and does nothing.  Shortly after, the Deltans all die by suicide leaving only two hostages left, the main stars of the book.

 Subcommander Tal shows up for an inspection and is appalled by the conditions the prisoners are kept in. He reports this to his Commander—the same Romulan Fleet Commander from “The Enterprise Incident”—she agrees to check on the prisoners herself. 

Tal

An unexpected earthquake leads to the death of Lord Krazz, leading Kalor in charge.  The Romulan Commander ordered Kalor to treat the prisoners better under threat of death and Kalor agrees to her demands.  While this is going on it turns out T’Shael is going through the pon farr. She instructs Cleante to bind her, so she won’t hurt her friend.  This reminds me of a werewolf.  Spock was bad but he didn’t have to be tied up.  Tal suggests they get a younger Romulan male to sleep with T’Shael, but the Commander just helps her mentally get over it.

Fleet Commander

After the Romulans leave Kalor decides to start torturing the prisoners again.  He forces T’Shael to spend the night outside in the freezing temperatures to test the Vulcans resistance to the cold.  As T’Shael is suffering Cleante decides to seduce Kalor.   He resists at first and then agrees to take her offer.  Cleante at this point starts to exhibit major Stockholm Syndrome as she finds herself starting to fall for Kalor. 

This doesn’t last however because the Romulan Commander arrives and shoots Kalor with a disruptor after catching the two in bed.  Kirk and Spock show up and find the two remaining warrantors exactly where the Commander wanted them to be found.  It appears her strategy was to kill them with kindness.  She wanted Kirk and Spock to see how nice she was to the warrantors so they would feel bad about stealing her cloaking device.  In the end Cleante doesn’t have to be a warrantor anymore, she is just happy it turns out Kalor didn’t leave her pregnant.  She decides to go to Vulcan and hangout with T’Shael who has warrantor for life status.

Additional thoughts: I had a hard time taking this story seriously as I found the premise to be absurd.  The very idea that United Federation of Planets is held together by an exchanging of hostages amongst the member worlds is beyond weird.  Apparently, the author was inspired by the exchanging of hostages in the medieval world and some Cold War theory.  It doesn’t even work in story; the warrantors themselves are supposed to be the relatives of the high-ranking officials on the various planets.  If the leader of Earth decided to invade Andora that leader would have to face the reality that their loved one would be the first to die.  However, in story the warrantors are allowed to have substitutes take their place similar to a US Civil War draftee.  This defeats the entire purpose because now it’s no longer the leader’s loved one on the firing line but a stranger. It’s explained that T’Shael is a substitute for Spock himself, who would normally have to serve because of the position of his father.  Again, this doesn’t make sense as Spock’s father is not a leader of Vulcan government but rather a diplomatic representative.  Sarek represents Vulcan but he doesn’t decide what actions it takes. Also, all the warrantors live on Vulcan even the Vulcan ones, so how is this stopping Vulcan from doing anything?

Does the Federation need to exchange hostages?

Maybe 

The time period was also hard to place.  I had originally thought it would take place between the second five-year mission between The Motion Picture and The Wrath of Khan.  However, it seemed might have been during the second film. Saavik is here and McCoy mentions that they have a crew of all cadets.  The crew is wearing “the monster maroons.”  Kirk is referred to as “Admiral” rather than the temporary commission of “Captain” he received in The Motion Picture.  Yet, he is in command of the Enterprise and the only time he held that command and called “Admiral” was during TWOK.  That makes the story more improbable to me that on the ship’s way to Regula 1 they stopped by and picked up the warrantors.

The story also is one in which you are introduced to a situation or character and then the reader is treated to a long flashback explaining who they are, what they are about, and what their relationships with each other are.  This is not an illegitimate form of storytelling, but it does make moving the plot forward difficult.  Without the filler the story might be only a quarter as long.

We see the Romulan Fleet Commander from “The Enterprise Incident.”  She was in the last book I read too.  Star Trek novelists seem to find her fascinating.  I tend to judge her appearance based on how they explain the aftermath of her capture and loss of cloaking device.  In the last book it was explained that she was able to escape consequence because the Praetor was her father.  In this version she did have claw her back to prominence, but it was aided by her being the Praetor's mistress.  This is clear contradiction, I hope.

She has also seemed to have learned from her boss, the Praetor, as we see her happily bed her own subordinates that she finds attractive   This includes Subcommander Tal, who it is said in the book has refused promotions so he can stay with her.  I didn’t like that as I felt the relationship between her and Tal was based on professionalism and respect. I don’t have any issue with her bedding other subordinates though it’s clearly an improvement on her from the last book where she was dealing in love slaves.  This book at least has the Commander moving in the right direction.   

Speaking of love slaves, that was some serious Stockholm Syndrome we saw from Cleante.  When she started to have feelings for Kalor and even started to sympathize with him.  She is also very insistent to McCoy and everyone else that what went on between them was consensual despite the fact that they both his prisoners and he was torturing her friend.

Although I highlight in each of my reviews the most important character and second most important character from the crew during the story this one is a bit off.  In this book the two most important members of the crew are Kirk and Spock, but they do nothing in the story.  The regular cast of characters are completely useless.  They could have been written out of the story, and nothing would have changed except the name of the ship that Cleante and T’Shael leave in.  

On the last note I found it funny that the author tried to present the Klingons as opposite of the Vulcans in that they age faster than humans. Neat idea that Star Trek didn’t stick with.

Should it be canon: I am going to say no.  There is just too much weird stuff in this book to try and have it be canonical.

Cover Art:. The cover has two young women on the bottom of the image is Cleante on the viewer’s right and T’Shael on the viewers left.  Above T’Shael is the face of Kirk and above Cleante is the face of Spock.

Final Grade: Final Grade 2 of 5

 

THE ENTERPRISE INCIDENT, THE SEQUEL

 

Name: Killing Time

Author: Della Van Hise

Publication Date: 7/1985

Publisher: Pocket Books (Star Trek #24)

Page Number: 311

Historian’s Note: Sometime between The Counter-Clock Incident and The Motion Picture

Cast of Characters:  Captain/Ensign James T. Kirk       Commander/Captain Spock              Dr. Leonard H. McCoy AKA “Bones”              Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott AKA “Scotty”       Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu              Lieutenant Nyota Uhura            Lieutenant Kevin Riley               Lieutenant/Ensign Jeremy Richardson          Lieutenant  Anderson              Nurse Christine Chapel          Ensign/Commander Pavel Chekov                 Ensign Dane Christensen           Ensign Carl Reichert          Ensign Paul Donner           Yeoman Third Class S'Parva        Crewman Devoran    Crewman Dave Donnelly              Admiral S't'kal            Captain Christopher Pike          Dr.  Palmer      The Romulan Fleet Commander/Preator        General Tavor           Commander Tazol                    Subcommander Sarela            Subcommander Sekor       Lieutenant Rolash                 Centurion Selon            Centurion Tasme

Starships and/or Starbases: USS Enterprise NCC-1701/VSS ShiKahr, VSS S'Tasmeen, VSS T'Ruda, IRV Ravon and IRV T'Favaron

Planets: Canus IV, Earth, Romulus, and Remus

My Spoiler filled summary and review: The adventure begins with Captain Kirk telling Spock of a strange dream he had.  He was on the Enterprise but it wasn’t the Enterprise. In addition to that he wasn’t the captain, Spock was.  Kirk in his dream never made it past ensign, and the whole time he wants to tell Spock that he is supposed to be the captain.  Strangely enough Spock had a similar dream.  McCoy dismisses these events as typical psychology.  

We have a new crew member, Yeoman S’Parva, who is from a species that looks like anthropomorphic dogs.  We also meet Lt. Jeremy Richarson, a human officer who seems to find the dog person attractive. (Thanks author!)

As Kirk goes to sleep reality changes.  He is no longer Captain Kirk of the Enterprise but he is Ensign Kirk of the ShiKahr.  Kirk’s life took a hard turn when he was falsely accused of murder of his instructor.  The Vulcans found him guilty and subjected him to something called the Talos device that messed him up mentally and is now dependent on drugs.  In this reality Spock is the captain of the ship.  He takes pity on Ensign Kirk, for he studied the Talos device and recommended its decommissioning.  Spock is also haunted by strange dreams.  The former Ensign Chekov is now a commander and first officer in this new reality.

Kirk is no longer himself

All of Captain Spock’s attempts to reach out to Ensign Kirk almost end in failure.  Kirk wants off the ship, but he wants prison less and that is his only alternative.  Spock decides to separate Kirk from his abusive roommate.  Kirk might not be a murderer, but he is still a huge pain in this time.  Spock still feels he deserves a fair chance.  

Things start to get strange from low to high.  Ensign Reichert almost destroys the ship with sabotage and Spock gets an insane order from fleet command to start a war with the Romulans.  McCoy finds two sets of brainwaves in the deranged Ensign.  This may be a galaxy wide event.

It turns out the Romulans were behind everything, the author doesn’t try to make this a surprise.  The Romulans decided that they needed to prevent the Federation from forming so they went on a mission do that.  Commander Tazol is excited about this plan because he feels the Federation has been strangling the Romulan Star Empire by denying its chance of expansion.  His first officer and wife, Subcommander Sarela, does not share his enthusiasm, as she pointed out other times their time travel plans did not give them the desired results. The two of them are not a good couple.

Commander Tazol is not a happy camper.

It seems the Romulans plans have all turned sour.  As the Federation no longer exists but it has been replaced by a Federation-like Alliance of Planets that is centered on Vulcan and not on Earth.  The Empire is only moderately bigger.  It seems as if the whole thing wasn’t worth the trip.

Back on the ShiKahr Dr. McCoy makes a startling discovery.  Remembering the time they went to the mirror universe, McCoy thinks that might have something to do with what they are now facing. He concludes that there are two universes, and one was created by a time alteration.  The big news is their universe that they have lived their whole lives in is the wrong one.  McCoy concludes that these shared dreams are of the other and real universe.  McCoy hypothesis that the people who are acting out are the ones who are the most affected by the change.  McCoy points out that he is probably a doctor and chief medical officer in both realities, so he is unchanged.  People whose lives have been turned upside down are having a rough time. Ensign Kirk is also a good example. He might have been something very different in another life.

Spock trying to help Kirk

Their mission brings them to Canus IV, where they investigate possible Romulan activity by sending down a landing party.  This causes Spock to question his decisions, and Kirk is re-traumatized.  Spock is also dealing with the fact that his pon farr, is kicking in.  In this reality T’Pring had more courage to just outright dump him, instead of cowardly trying to get him to murder his own friend.   

Subcommander Sarela is summoned to meet with the Praetor and shocked to discover that the Praetor is actually a woman.  Her name is Thea, and she is the same Romulan Fleet Commander that Kirk and Spock stole a clocking device from in the unaltered reality.  She explains her father was Praetor until his recent death and since he was sonless, she took over. There is going to be a power struggle in the Empire and Sarela’s husband is on the other side.  The Praetor realizes her father’s plan hasn’t worked she now wants to abduct Kirk to force Spock to impersonate the Praetor (as most people don’t know what the Praetor looks like) and present the Vulcan Tenets of Discipline to the Romulan people. After she wants Spock to use his extraordinary power as a starship commander to negotiate a peace treaty.    

Big plans for Spock

The ShiKahr rendezvous with T'Ruda, a ship commanded by Spock’s former first officer, Captain Christopher Pike, the first human to command his own starship.  Captains Spock and Pike agree that the orders coming from the fleet a clearly insane.  Spock learns that Kirk has not been seen since returning from Canus IV. He finds Kirk in the ship's green and forcibly initiates a mind-meld, during which the two of them become more fully aware of who they were in the unaltered timeline.  During the meld Kirk drops his Academy ring in the loose sand of the garden. Richardson and S'Parva also discover their true selves using the same method.

Suddenly a small Romulan scout ship appears claiming to have drifted of course.  They are intercepted and the crew brought aboard.  Thea and Sarela come aboard and are confined to quarters. Later, two Romulan agents disguised as Vulcan security guards, kidnap Kirk and Richardson from their cabin and transport them to the scout ship and escape to Romulan space.  Thea announces her plans to Spock, and he agrees but only to turn the tables on her.

Spock lets Thea know that the timeline is now unstable and when the get to Romulus rebellions all throughout the Empire convince her that this is true. Kirk and Richardson are brought in after an escape attempt and are recruited on the mission.  Thea reveals that the assassins who went back to alter the past and were androids that her father had purchased.   Little does Thea know that Jim Kirk is the Bane of all Artificial Intelligence, and these androids don’t stand a chance.  The Romulan ship loops around the sun in order to go back to the past.

Now in the late 21^st century they locate the figures they need to save.  When the androids arrive, they attack.  In the battle Richardson is killed and Spock is fatally injured.  Before he passes, he gives Kirk a Romulan disruptor because, as the one who lost the most due to the time change, he should be the one to restore it.  As Spock lies dying the three of them disappear.

Kirk doesn't feat andriods or any other type of AI

Back in the restored universe Kirk awakens to find he is once again Captain of the Enterprise. Still haunted by the dreams, he agrees to a mind meld with Spock.  They are now aware of their other selves, and it explains a ring Kirk found in the garden that belonged to his counterpart.  The ring was located exactly where he dropped it.  Later Kirk puts it back and allows it to disappear. 

Additional thoughts: Well, this now makes two books in row where the enemies of the Federation tried to wipe out using time travel.  In “Ishmael” the Klingons try to use time travel to prevent the existence of the Federation and this time it’s the Romulans.  The Klingons never succeed, in fact, their attempt to change things is itself what caused them to fail.  The Romulans manage to pull it off only to realize that they did not get what they asked for and end up teaming up with our heroes to get everything back.   

I am really tired of people with my name being weirdos or creeps.  We got the silly Ghostbusters guy, the not so nice individual in the new Beetlejuice film. This one isn’t so bad. It’s just that he is sexually attracted to a big dog-like alien.

I enjoyed how Sarela explains to her foolish husband of the other failed time travel plots. They have tried to use time travel in the past to make life easier for themselves and at one time it led to them wiping out a planetary population.  Yet the Romulans still continue to do it.  You would think they would run into some heavy butterfly effects by now.

Should leave the time travel tricks to the Federation

There must be more to the Romulans changing the timeline than just the simple sling shot effect. Everywhere else in the franchise whenever the timeline has changed, hardly anyone is aware that it occurred.  When the Romulans start to change it, multiple people start having bad dreams as a preview for the new reality.  When reality finally does change people continue to have strange dreams about their old lives driving some of them insane.  Romulans should leave the time travel adventures to the Federation.  

I thought it was interesting that both the Second History crew and the First History crew went on similar missions.  The Second History also had a “Mirror, Mirror” adventure.  Which made me really interested in what the Mirror Universe looked like in this reality.  Clearly its different or else Spock would have identified Kirk as the Mirror Universe captain.

What's their Mirror Universe like?

So, the Romulan Star Empire has a system of slavery with other Romulans as slaves.  And sometimes sex slaves are given away as gifts? Yes, these slaves are still trusted as with weapons and are sent on secret missions to enemy territory.  This isn’t the only version of this we saw something similar of this in the book, “The Fate of the Phoenix.”   

Why was this Spock going through the pon farr now?  Wouldn’t it have kicked in around the same time as the Prime Universe Spock?  Are there more treatments in this reality that can delay it?  That might make sense in a Vulcan-centered Alliance.

It is quite a shock to realize that your very reality that you lived in your entire life, is not real. In most time travel stories time gets mixed up and those characters who have not been changed try to restore the true reality. Understanding that your world or universe is wrong and you aren’t the “real you” requires a whole new level of thought. Of course, it’s easier when your universe is trying to destroy itself.   

A typical time travel adventure

It appears we have Romulan terminators? At this point in history The Terminator had only been out for about a year.  Fortunately, the time device that our heroes use doesn’t require that they travel naked, and the Romulan disruptor serves well at ending the threat and restoring reality. 

Lastly, the Praetor.  As the old Hitchcock quote goes, “You can get people to believe in the impossible but the improbable.”  I am all right with human-looking space aliens starships and time travel.  I can’t believe that someone can screw up as badly as the Romulan Fleet Commander did in “The Enterprise Incident” can not only keep her job but be promoted. I don’t care who her father is.  The book “The Price of the Phoenix” also featured her in a continued leadership role.  I prefer the “My Enemy, My Ally” view of it where she lost everything and correctly blames Kirk and Spock.  Now this could be saved.  We never saw her act as Praetor in the main universe.  Yes, she was supposedly immune to the change.  However, no one knows what the Praetor looks like maybe he didn’t board the ship because he didn’t want to be stuck with the “wrong memories.”  What if Thea was just a bureaucratic assistant who was there to record the change and report back and she returned she was now the Praetor.  She might see it as an extension of a career she should have naturally had.  

This book was also infamous because of the Kirk/Spock slash fiction that was contained in the original edition that was recalled by Paramount Pictures.  As my copy is not original and doesn’t contain the delated passages, I can’t really make a comment on it.

Should it be canon: Considering the whole adventure is one that the main story never actually happened except in the minds of Kirk and Spock, I don’t have an objection to it being cannon. Although I don't care for the part of the Romulan Fleet Commander being the Praetor's daughter/successor.  

Cover Art: Spock is on the front of the cover wearing his Vulcan Fleet uniform.  Behind him is Subcommander Sarela and the Romulan Fleet Commander turned Praetor. Behind them is a city on Romulus and a Bird of Prey flies through the sky.

Final Grade: Final Grade 4 of 5

 

SPOCK’S MIND SIFTER ADVENTURE

 

Name: Ishmael

Author: Barbara Hambly

Publication Date: 5/1985

Publisher: Pocket Books (Star Trek #23)

Page Number: 255

Historian’s Note: In between the last episode of Star Trek season 1: “Operation Annihilate” and the first episode of Star Trek season 2: “Catspaw”

Cast of Characters:  Captain James T. Kirk       Lieutenant Commander Spock              Dr. Leonard H. McCoy AKA “Bones”              Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott AKA “Scotty”       Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu              Lieutenant Nyota Uhura            Lieutenant Kevin Riley               Lieutenant Gilden          Dr. Aurelia Steiner               Ensign Pavel Chekov                 Commander Maria Kellogg     Trae       Khin Khlaru        Colonel  Nch'rth                    Jason Bolt                 Jeremy Bolt         Joshua Bolt            Captain Roland Francis Clancey           Biddy Cloom                  Dr. Sarah Gay             Lottie Hatfield                Elizabeth Darrow            Donnelly               Katy Hoyt                 Robin Manderly                    Sheila Meyers          Joshua Norton                Mrs. O'Shaughnessy                     Candy Pruitt             Aaron Stemple            Dulcie Wainright           Elizabeth Stemple              unnamed Klingons          

Starships and/or Starbases: USS Enterprise NCC-1701, Starbase 12, IKS Rapache, and IKS Schin'char

Planets: Alpha Eridani III and Earth

My Spoiler filled summary and review: The adventure begins with the Enterprise being summoned to Starbase 12, to study the nearby Tau Eridani Cloud.  However, the Klingons are also there, and they don’t seem to be there to observe a white dwarf star.  The pair of Klingon ships are a transport and a cruiser and the transport gives off a lot of power.  Spock, with Kirk’s approval, sneaks aboard disguised as a worker from the Starbase there to unload equipment.  When it comes time to rendezvous later, he never arrives, and it appears he is still on the transport.

Klingons making trouble

Any attempt to rescue him is shot when the transport suddenly accelerates to a high warp speed and vanishes into the cloud. All is not lost however because Spock was able to send a cryptic message.  That message is “White dwarf. Khlaru. Tillman's Factor. Guardian" and along with the numbers eighteen, sixty, and seven.

Aaron Stemple

The story moves to 19th century Seattle, Washington.  Long before it was major American city instead it was just a logging town.  Aaron Stemple, a local businessman, finds Spock unconscious and appears to have been tortured.  Stemple is taken back that the land around the injured man is itself undisturbed, as if the stranger appeared out of nowhere.  Upon looking at Spock’s green blood and pointed ears, he realizes an alien from outer space. (Which, I’ll take more about in my Additional thoughts section.)  Stemple realizing the intolerance of his world—US Civil War being only a few years ago—decides not to return Spock to a local doctor.  He takes it upon himself to save the stranger so, he brings back Spock to his isolated cabin at Eagle Head Point.

 

Lottie Hatfield, owner of a local saloon bar, becomes Stemple’s confidant about Spock’s existence.  Stemple shares his concerns about what Spock’s existence means for their planet and humanity itself.   Later Lottie sees two Klingons. She wants to go back and warn Stemple, but the weather kills that plan.

Gets help

Spock wakes up with no memory of who he is, but he knows he is an alien.  He is also very depressed to the point of almost suicide.  Stemple tries to cheer him up and offers him a job as an accountant.

Back in the 23^rd century Kirk is still trying to figure out what happened to his friend and first officer.  He teams up with Commander Maria Kellogg, who is the commanding officer of Starbase 12. Kellogg points to that there is a Klingon historian named Khlaru, currently on this very Starbase. Tillmann's Factor is a mathematical constant to do with acceleration past light-speed, and the Enterprise this year accidentally created at time warp and was sent back to Earth during the 1960s. Maybe the Klingons have used the white dwarf star to create their own time warp. To Kirk, the number 18-6-7 sounds like a date. 

Kirk and crew trying to find Spock

Kellogg has a Vulcan historian Trae on staff.  Trae explains that the Klingons were conquered by the Karsid Empire centuries ago. Karsid strategy was to locate preindustrial societies and offer them economic and other help. This would lead to increasing interference on their part in those societies until they took over completely. The Klingons overthrew the Karsid Empire before founding their own and this is the reason the Karsids were never able to try this on Earth.

 Spock is given the name Ishmael Marx and is introduced into town as Stemple’s nephew.  They visit Lottie’s place where Spock learns about the town’s big situation.  Jason Bolt, who runs a lumber mill with his two brothers, Jeremy and Joshua, had to overcome a shutdown of his operation as his lumberjacks are upset that there is no female population to speak of in Seattle.  In order to save his business, he promises to find at least a hundred single young women willing to come to the frontier town and stay for a full year.  Problem is he doesn’t have the money to afford it.  So, to meet that second desperate situation he makes a literal gamble.  Stemple puts up much of the money not as a loan but as a bet the Bolt brothers will not succeed.  If the Bolt fails to marry off all the women Stemple wins Bridal Veil Mountain, with their logging company at a fraction of the costs. (This is the overall plot of the Here Come the Brides TV show.) 

Spock is more than successful as Stemple’s accountant, and his skills amaze the town.  It appears the memory plagued Vulcan is fitting in very well on 19^th century Earth.  Spock challenges his benefactor to the morality of this bet of his.  He convinces Stemple to offer the Bolt brothers a way out of the bet by just buying him off. The Bolt brothers don’t have the money, so they head to San Francisco to gamble, and Spock comes up with a method for them to gradually win money.  In a few days they were going to be able to get the $50,000 to pay off Stemple.  While this is going on they are attacked in the street, but they manage to fight them off.  They run into a woman named Sarah Gay.  Gay is a doctor but because of prejudice at the time she was not allowed to be one.  Joshua takes a liking to her.  

Spock tries to help the Bolts out

Spock’s system was working but they got greedy and Jason risks everything on poker but loses.  This means they have to leave San Francisco empty handed and the bet between the Bolts and Stemple is still on.

The ladies of the bet!

Kirk, McCoy, Maria Kellogg, and Trae investigate what the Klingons are trying to achieve. They found that the Klingons tried to destroy the relevant records, but was stopped by Khin Khlaru, who wanted to preserve the integrity of the historical record. The records reveal that the Karsids began their attempt to subvert and take over Earth in 1868, but their efforts were stopped by government of the United States. Before they could overcome that resistance, the Klingon rebellions began that brought about the downfall of the Karsid Empire.  The person most responsible for the US Government being able to resist the Karsid Empire, was no other than the United States representative from Washington Territory – Aaron Stemple.  The Klingons are hoping to stop Stemple thus allowing them to conquer the Earth and prevent the Federation from forming.  The Klingon Empire will still come into existence with no Federation to stand in the way of their territorial ambitions.

During the celebration of Jeremy Bolt and Candy Pruitt’s marriage, Jason proposes to Biddy hoping to finally win the bet.  She turns him down, although she was very flattered by the proposal, but she thinks they would not be a good match.  Sarah Gay arrives unexpectedly, having changed her mind about marrying Joshua.

Spock doing his best to fit in.

Stemple then asks Biddy to marry him, and she accepts.  This means Stemple gets the love of this life but loses the bet, this means that everyone is happy with all they have. At this point in the plot this is the perfect time for Klingon assassins from the future to show up. Seeing Klingons restores Spock’s memory and he sees them go after Stemple.  He gives chase but Spock is not in time to prevent the Klingons shooting temple who is badly wounded but not killed. Spock stops the Klingons finishing Aaron off and they leave, convinced that they fatally injured him. 

Stemple gets his girl!

Spock tries to nurse him back to health with blood transfusions enthusiastically donated by the community.  It doesn’t save him only delays the inevitable, Spock is convinced that he failed in his primary objective.  Just when he is about to come to terms with his failure Captain Kirk and Dr. McCoy arrive.  They took the Enterprise back to the past via firing the warp drive around a star and here they are.  Stemple is brought back to the ship, and his life is saved.  Spock, restored to his previous self, thanks Stemple for all he had done for him.  Stemple is sent back to his own destiny.

Kirk and McCoy show up to rescue Spock!

In his final evaluation Spock conceded that he believes they have always been living in the altered time-line.  The Klingons, in their attempt to change what had happened, ended up bringing the exact events about. Spock also concludes that his mother and therefore himself are the descendants of Biddy and Aaron Stemple.  Stemple is Amanda Grayson’s middle name.

Spock restored!

Additional thoughts: This was a fun story.  In a way it reminded me of the earlier story “Mind Sifter” that involved Captain Kirk after Klingon torture being sent to Earth’s past with no idea of who was.  This was better.  Spock might not have had his memory, but he was clearly himself.  It also did not take place of an impossible timetable. 

This is not just a Star Trek book; it is crossover with another TV show from the 1960s called Here Comes the Brides.  All the characters that Spock interacts with in the 19^th century are from this series. Now I never even heard of the series before this book, so I did some reading up on it.  Like Star Trek, Brides often would deal with real world issues such as racial discrimination and the importance of tolerance.  The show lasted for two seasons and had over fifty episodes.  I suspect that the show never had a resolution for its characters because the shows main premise: women being brought in for marriage prospects and a bet between Stemple and Jason Bolt is still on going at the start of this story and finally resolved by the end of the book. All the Brides characters are in a good place at the end, with this probably being their last appearance—as unlike Star Trek they didn’t give birth to a franchise—their fans can rest easy knowing how it was all resolved.

Hopefully fans got their resolution

When I was a kid, my sisters, my cousins, and I use to play a game we called “Mix up.” We would all play characters from various franchises and come up with stories on how they could interact together. So, Luke Skywalker could team up with Captain Kirk, the Ghostbusters, and a superhero. This book kind of reminded me of that.

The scene when they were talking about the old Earth Gregorian calendar dating system and since they didn’t use it, they were unaware that BC and AD weren’t used in everyday speech.  I like how Kirk and McCoy used their experience with Edith Keeler to explain that to the base commander.  Although later in the series would make this scene not make sense as the calendar is still used by humans. 

I learned something about math that I didn’t know prior to reading this book.  X²-1=(X-1) *(X+1) I thought that was very cool.  Thank you, Mr. Spock.  

We learned a bit of Klingon history. The Karsid Empire is the Mongol Empire to the Klingons’ Russia.  The Klingons were once the victims of space conquerors until they overthrew them and used their empire to start the foundation of their own interplanetary empire.  Seems this is history that they probably shouldn’t be messing with.

I thought it was funny that the United States Library of Congress is still around despite the unification of Earth Government. 

Although Spock says he thinks they were always in the alternate timeline I have a different opinion.  This reminds me a lot of the first Terminator movie where it was a closed time loop. The attempt to change the past is what caused the very events that you didn’t want to happen to actually happen.  Hence, while the Klingons stop focusing on time travel. 

So, Aaron Stemple, who was played by Star Trek Legend Mark Lenard, turns out to be one of Spock’s human ancestors.  Amazing that Spock, he always has relatives coming out of nowhere.  It was bit of stretch that Stemple was so quick to deduce that Spock was not of this world.  I mean what would even inspire him to believe in life on other planets?  There is nothing about that in the culture of Earth at the time at least that I am aware of.  They do point out that such a world did produce H.G. Wells and his stories so I suppose it could make sense but still seemed that Stemple had formed these beliefs because of plot smarts.  Unless, does anyone who watched this TV show know if Stemple was always going on about aliens trying to invade the Earth?    

Should it be canon: I have no issues with this, I think it would be a great addition to Star Trek canon.

Cover Art: The cover has Spock in 19^th century dress playing chess with a man from that time period.  A beautiful woman looks on standing slightly behind the middle of them.  The cover has a slight deception as in the story Spock grew his hair longer to cover his ears while he was in 1867.

Final Grade: Final Grade 5 of 5

 

A PRINCE AND HIS SWORDS

 

Name: Shadow Lord

Author: Laurence Yep

Publication Date: 3/1985

Publisher: Pocket Books (Star Trek #22)

Page Number: 280

Historian’s Note: In between the episodes “Balance of Terror” and “What are Little Girls Made of?”

Cast of Characters:  Captain James T. Kirk       Lieutenant Commander Spock              Dr. Leonard H. McCoy AKA “Bones”              Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott AKA “Scotty”       Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu              Lieutenant Nyota Uhura            Prince Vikam         Bacha           Chit           Diwan              Jata              Megra            Lord Bhima                  Bibil               Gelu               Mumtas        Pagu          Lord Rahu          Schami          Tayu          Urmi

Starships and/or Starbases: USS Enterprise NCC-1701

Planets: Angira

My Spoiler filled summary and review: The adventure begins when the Enterprise is assigned to journey to the planet Angira, whose government is asking for assistance in updating its star charts.  Mr. Spock will handle that assignment while the ship drops them off and completes another mission to deliver medical supplies to Beta Carinae.  Angira is a primitive planet and how it made contact with the Federation is never explained.  Angira is controlled by an Empire whose territory encompasses the entire world.  The Empire’s government is a hereditary monarchy.  Their latest Emperor, who goes unnamed is just referred to as “the Emperor,” is trying to reform and update his world.  He wants to turn his Empire from an agricultural civilization to an industrial one.  For his family’s Empire dominated the world before the industrial age ever had a chance to start.  To help improve his world the Emperor sends Prince Vikam, his youngest and therefore least important son, to Earth to attend university and report back on the ways of outsiders so that they may copy their better ideas. 

The ninth in the line to Throne of Angira took to the assignment like a fish takes to water.  He loved learning, discovering new ways, he thought Earth was great and the entire Federation even better, and when he is summoned home by father, he was rather disappointed.  As he and his tutor Bibil, the only Angiran with him, board the Enterprise, the crew is pleased to discover he is nothing like what they would expect an Angiran prince to be.  He is open, friendly, and eager to learn about other people.  He bonds with Sulu over fencing.  They work out in the rec area practicing with various types of swords European, Asian, and Angiran.  Vikam’s people still use swords as a big part of everyday life, Sulu requests to go to Angira with Spock and it is granted.   

Spock and Sulu team up for this mission.

 The group of four beam down to the planet Angira.  When they arrive, they discover that not many people are not happy to see their prince.  Everyone they encounter simply invokes anger at the interference of outsiders.  This xenophobic attitude crosses over the political spectrum.  It includes people such as Lord Bhima, who fears the influence of outsiders will continue to undermine the traditional hierarchical patriarchal medieval culture; and those such as Urmi, Bibil’s niece, who thinks that the Federation is going to give the Emperor new ways to oppress the people.  These various sides for similar reasons opposed the Emperor’s reforms.  Nevertheless, the Emperor is employing an all-hands-onboard approach and has retained several of his critics in positions of power.  

It turns out giving power to those who don’t like you is a major mistake because the landing party finds themselves under attack and are forced to defend themselves using Angiran swords.  (Spock and Sulu were not allowed to bring their phasers.)  They fight well but Sulu does feel that the dream of life-stakes sword fighting is quite horrifying in actual reality.  It turns out that this attack is part of a larger coup led by the reactionary Lord Rahu.  The Imperial family has been slaughtered, I would compare them to the Romanovs, but this fictional imperial family went out fighting.

Sulu's dream not so fun reality. 

They escape with some assistance from members of the Emperor’s loyalists.  After passing the Prince’s grandfather’s torture chambers they are attacked by these giant beetle creatures and Bibil is killed by these creatures saving the rest of the landing party. While this is going on Rahu is building support and recruits the once loyal and more moderate Lord Bhima to his cause.  As the four (Vikam, Spock, Sulu, and Urmi escape the place first head to Urmi’s home village.  One the way they are attacked by a group of bandits whose leader is a local lord whose fiefdom was seized the Emperor in the reforms.  They escape but Spock was injured in the process, and he has to remain behind in Urmi’s village while the other three Vikram's family's fortress at Kotah. 

Throughout their trip both to the village and to the fortress options are discussed.  At one point Spock suggested they hide somewhere and wait for the Enterprise to pick them up, with Vikam and Urmi given refuge status.  Vikam actually likes the idea, but Urmi wants to fight for her home and Sulu tries to convince the Prince not to give up.  With so many of his family dead Vikam is now likely the lawful heir of the Empire.  Except he wants nothing to do with it he was not trained for it and on top of that he thinks his society is horrible.  Everything he sees just reinforces that.  All his father’s reforms while nice in theory had been horrible in practice.   

Despite his dislike for such crew weaponry it turns out Spock is quite good. 

As their journey continues Vikam experiences a change of heart he starts to understand that he may be able to do some good if he assumes power.  When they reach Kotah he finds the Council of Elders hesitant to acknowledge him as the true heir.  Nevertheless, he is able to raise an army amongst the people made up of many of his father’s veterans that he will use to oppose Rahu.

The two sides engage with their armies, and it turns out that the Angirans do have some larger gun-powder type weapons.  During the course of the battle Vikam is knocked unconscious, so Sulu in a very non-prime directive way takes command. When the Prince wakes up, they are about to see victory only to discover that Rahu has Spock as a hostage.  Vikam challenges Rahu to a dual Rahu accepts so long as he can have Lord Bhima as his champion.  Vikam accepts this and defeats his former mentor.  Rahu tries to weasel out of it but his attempt to kill Vikam fails when Bhima takes an arrow meant for the Prince.  Rahu is killed and the war is won. 

Vikam is now set to become emperor and will hopefully have a regium that is better than his father’s.  The Enterprise arrives to pick up its two officers, and Captain Kirk gives Sulu a run-down about the Prime Directive.  It turns out Sulu is in the clear as Spock had already sent a report in that provided an explanation and justification for his actions.

Captain Kirk drills Sulu for his PD violations 

 Additional thoughts: I enjoyed this story because there was a great deal of action and pacing of the story felt quick but not rushed.  Prince Vikam is an interesting person.  His position reminded me of a few people I knew in college.  They came from developing countries, the then came to the United States on a student visa with the idea of getting an education and then going back to their home countries to help make life better there.  But as human beings as they got used to living in a rich country like the United States it created a condition, that the person who explained this to me called “brain drain.” They enjoy America so much that they didn’t want to go back.  Vikam is like this at the beginning of the story despite the fact at home he is a Prince of the imperial house, he found that life was much better as a college student in the United Federation of Planets. 

 I also felt that perhaps Vikam’s initial reluctance to accept the throne also makes me wonder if his conditioning as a younger son had a lot to do with it.  In royal houses governed by the inheritance of primogeniture as a younger prince he would have been taught at a young age that the throne was his oldest brother’s destiny not his.  As ninth in line to the throne he would rarely move closer to it but every time his older brothers had sons of their own, or when their sons produced sons, he would fall further.  The whole point in sending him away was to give him something to do.  He was probably made to feel guilty if he ever secretly wanted the crown.  Now that it was being thrust upon him, he would be hesitant to accept it.  As we saw in the movie The King’s Speech it can be something that a younger brother has a hard time accepting. 

Even though it’s addressed a little bit at the end, there are still some major prime directive violations here.  For I don’t understand while the Federation is even talking with the government of Angira.  The story keeps repeating that their technology at best is comparable to the 17^th century Earth. The Federation should not even allow the people of Angira to know that other more advanced civilizations exist.  Instead, we see the Federation sending Spock to update their star charts and their schools accepting foreign exchange students. Despite the liking of the Prince, they shouldn’t be helping him fight off a coup.  If the destiny of Vikam’s dynasty is to go the way of the Romanovs, then that is planet’s natural development and no Starfleet officer should interfere, much less command his armies, as Sulu did.  I don’t really buy Spock’s explanation at the end because that Rahu was not a real revolutionary.  Rebels might have many reasons, not all of them good.

Now in the episodes “Errand of Mercy” and “Friday’s Child” have Starfleet contacting and negotiating with underdeveloped civilizations.  However, in those episodes the Federation has survival type reasons to do so.  In the former the Federation is at war with the Klingons and planet Organa is in a strategic location for both powers.  If the Federation doesn’t make a move the Klingons certainly will. In the later the planet had a source important natural resources that was extremely important to again both the Klingons and Federation and like before if they don’t move the Klingons will.  To the Federation credit they didn’t try to force their way in, nor would they offer unfair deals. None of these scenarios are present in this situation.  

Not the first time the Federation dealt with a planet their values say they shouldn't.

Should it be canon: I wouldn’t mind the story being canon despite my prime directive concerns it is not only Star Trek tale that contains contradictions.  Maybe they could come up with a better explanation for the Federation’s involvement later.

Cover Art: The cover has Spock, Sulu, and Prince Vikam armed with swords fighting off the giant beetle creatures seen in the story.  Somethings are off though.  The creatures seem bigger than described, Prince Vikam, who is said to have fur doesn’t seem to have any, Sulu is in a blue uniform, and neither he nor Spock have any rank insignia showing.

Final Grade: Final Grade 3 of 5