KIRK AND THE CREW OF THE ENTERPRISE FIGHT TERRORISTS

Name: Crisis on Centaurus

Author: Brad Ferguson

Publication Date: 3/1986

Publisher: Pocket Books (Star Trek #28)

Page Number: 254

Historian’s Note: Sometime between Turnabout Intruder and The Lorelei Signal

Cast of Characters:  Captain James T. Kirk       Commander Spock              Dr. Leonard H. McCoy AKA “Bones”              Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott AKA “Scotty”       Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu              Lieutenant Nyota Uhura            Dr. Joseph M'Benga      Lieutenant Sergei Dominico                     Lieutenant Peter Siderakis               Nurse Christine Chapel          Nurse Constance Iziharry               Ensign Pavel Chekov              Ensign Diana Flores               Ensign Rachel Lanz       Chief Petty Officer Alec MacPherson            Crewman Hudson       Joanna McCoy         Samuel Cogley                  Isidore Holtzman             Mr.  Holtzman                    President Henry Erikkson                  Minister Nathaniel Burke                      Miinister Daniel Perez                      Reuben Barclay       Thaddeus Hayes            Dr. Saul Weinstein        Colonel Duncan Smith                   Deputy Roland Samuels       Deputy Winston Churchill McKnight        Corporal Schmidt     Teodor Vladsilovich            

Starships and/or Starbases: USS Enterprise NCC-1701, Starbase 7, Galileo II NCC-1701/7, Columbus NCC-1701/2, USS Hood NCC-1703, Edith Cavell, Sakharov, and Thomas Dooley

Planets: Centaurus

My Spoiler filled summary and review: The story begins with day-to-day life at a space transport station on a Federation colony.  People are worried about a malfunction on the local currency dispenser, but they don’t realize that is the least of their problems.  A terrorist is about to be cornered so that is when he decides to release his Anti-matter bomb and destroys the entire city of New Athens. 

Good bye New Athens

Back in our familiar setting the proud Enterprise is going through massive technical malfunctions.  Artificial gravity is failing and the ship having to drop out of warp to prevent its destruction are just two of the problems.  They are requesting to go to a Starbase to discover and fix what it is that has gone wrong.  Unfortunately, “the only ship in the area problem” rears its ugly head and they are sent to deal with the problem on Centaurus.  

We then get a flashback and learn that Kirk, while a lieutenant serving on the Farragut, spent time on Centaurus.  There he bought a ranch with its own valley and named it after his former commanding officer Captain Garrovick.  It was here on Centaurus that he first met Dr. McCoy and his daughter Joanna.  The former who treated him after an injury.  We learn that Kirk really loves his little ranch, his private getaway.

Kirk loves his little home away from home

The Enterprise’s problems are improved to the efforts of Scotty, Spock, and the rest of the engineering team.  They get a strange message from Centaurus basically threatening them. Demanding that they stay away from their planet.  When they arrive, they are attacked with a nuclear weapon.  The Enterprise’s shields hold for now, but they won’t be able to keep doing that.

Because of the weapons used in the New Athens bombing they are unable to use normal subspace communication.  They have to rely on old radio.  They are able to raise the President of Centaurus who informs them that their defense system is malfunctioning and attacking everything it sees. Several Earth ships that came to aid in the relief have already been destroyed.  The good news is if the defense system attacks something at it survives it assumes it succeeded in its destruction and doesn’t bother in continuing the attack. 

Enterprise hoping not to get attacked again

With transporters still malfunctioning Kirk decides to send two teams down to the surface.  One to deal with the planetary government and investigate what happened.  The other team will try to repair the faulty defense system. Kirk will lead one team, and Spock the other.  Scotty has his hands full with repairs and Sulu is needed to pilot the shuttlecraft.  Therefore, Uhura is left in command of the ship, and her first job is to protect the shuttles by shooting down missiles that may attack them.  She does this quite successfully.    

Kirk meets with the President of Centaurus, a man named Henry Erikkson a low-ranking cabinet member who rose to the Presidency after the death of everyone else in the terrorist attack.  Unfortunately, Kirk can see this man is more like Millard Filmore than Harry Truman.  The man is way over his head and is eager to let Kirk take charge.  The President does reveal that the main bad guys are a human white supremist group called, League for a Pure Humanity, who were angry that they cannot win an openly democratic election, so they want to blackmail their way to power via terrorism.

Kirk finds local leaders difficult 

While Kirk is dealing with politicians, Spock is dealing with the reality that circumstances have made it impossible to repair the defense system.  Spock suggests they can’t shut it down, but they can empty it by making the system see the sun as a threat.  It will force it to launch everything it has at it.  The planetary authorities are not too happy, but Kirk convinces them to go along with Spock’s plan which is successful.

At one point, we discover that Joanna McCoy is alive and well and helping on the planet.  This makes Dr. McCoy very happy. 

Kirk has orders to bring the culprits, if they are found back to Earth to stand trial.  This puts them at odds with the local authorities who want them tried locally.  The issue is the death penalty.  Centaurus has one and the Federation itself does not except for violation of General Order Number 7. Samuel Cogley, Kirk’s old lawyer from “Court Martial” contacts him as the terrorists’ lawyer.  He informs the Captain that the terrorists are willing to surrender but only to Kirk himself.

Cogley now needs Kirk's help

Kirk goes with Sulu to arrest the bad guys.  At the hotel they are staying at Sulu is drugged and Kirk gets in a shooting match with planetary law enforcement knocking them out.  He steals their uniforms and he carries out drugged Sulu.  Kirk leads his group, Cogley and the suspected terrorists, to his little ranch on the valley. 

While on the bridge of the Enterprise, Uhura is calling out President Erikkson and his lies pretending he has no idea what Captain Kirk is while his police force is hunting him down. Spock arrives on the bridge with Joanna McCoy and she points where Kirk’s ranch is.

Kirk, Sulu, and their companions find themselves surrounded by planetary forces.  While under siege the leader of the terrorist basically confesses to Kirk everything they have done and what they are about.  Kirk goes out to negotiate but he doesn’t have to because the Enterprise has entered the atmosphere and is above Kirk’s ranch.  

Enterprise in the sky

The story quickly resolves the terrorists are headed to trail on Earth, but Cogley has resigned as their lawyer.  The President and other officials who were hunting them down are allowed to resign and escape punishment, as they had lost families in the attack.  McCoy gets to spend time with his daughter.  Spock figures out what was causing the malfunctions on the Enterprise.  It turns out they passed through a mini black hole, and it ruined their systems. No one was at fault. 

Additional thoughts: The story was a fairly interesting one.  It was a great look at one of the Federation’s colony worlds and how they act with the Federation as a whole.

Apparently, Coca-Cola, Francs, and American Express are still going to be in our 23^rd century space faring universe.  Francs as a currency still exists in some countries but it lost most of its base when France went to the Euro in 1999.  Something tells me they won’t be using it in the 23^rd century.  I accept that people still Coca-Cola however I don’t think we ever see American Express existing with starships anywhere in the rest of the Star Trek franchise.  The book is full of these things that still existed in 1984 that for some reason the author thought would be part of the great space family of the Federation and Starfleet.  Some other examples include the Red Cross which has ships on its very own.  The nation states of Earth such as the United States, France, and the United Kingdom exist as individual Federation members not united under a one Earth global government.  The nation also has their own space fleet some of those ships lost earlier were those national ships. The book even describes the Soviet Union still existing with communism still in force and it’s said that Chekov was born on a collective farm. The Soviet regime would fall seven years after the book came out.  

The “only ship in the area” is classic Star Trek troupe but such a tired one. Kirk and his crew are flouting on the bridge because of no gravity and Starfleet still charging them with going to the colony and solving the problem.  It makes Starfleet look so inept.  

I liked the flashbacks to Kirk’s youth and building his ranch after what happened on the Farragut.  It reminds me of what Theodore Roosevelt did after his wife and mother died on the same day.  I also like seeing Uhura given and chance to command the Enterprise.  We saw it in the Animated Series, but it was an episode where there were only women aboard the ship.

Centaurus is such a strange planet.  It seems to be the land the time forgot, as it is like the colony decided to have a world based on the 20^th century Earth complete with cars, trains, and planes. Maybe this is why League for a Pure Humanity thought they stood a chance.  It’s hard to imagine any world in the Federation embracing such a bigoted view.  That is another part of this story I don’t really like as it was made clear in “Let That be Your Last Battlefield” that type of human isn’t supposed to even be around anymore.  

I also thought the ending was too convenient.  It was as if the author became bored with his own story.  One moment they have the threat of three anti-matter bombs and then they’ve been taken care of.  In addition to that, the long-awaited meeting of Dr. McCoy’s daughter was overrated.  We were supposed to meet her in an original episode but that was changed.  Her presence adds nearly nothing to this story, despite her being on the cover.   

Should it be canon: The main story could be but there are all kinds of contradictions in the way the Federation is described compared to the way it is on the show.

Cover Art: The cover has Kirk, Spock, and Joanna McCoy in between them.  All three are facing the viewer. Behind them is a building or space station of some kind.

Final Grade: Final Grade 3 of 5