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 

SPOCK SUFFERS BRAIN DAMAGE

 

Name: Mindshadow

Author: JM Dillard

Publication Date: 1/1986

Publisher: Pocket Books (Star Trek #27)

Page Number: 252

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 Varth Regev                Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu              Lieutenant Nyota Uhura            Dr. Joseph M'Benga      Dr. Emma Staenz              Lieutenant Ingrid Tomson                   Lieutenant Mohamed al-Baslama               Lieutenant Giorgo Mikahlis                   Lieutenant Mohamed Jahma              Lieutenant (junior grade) Reems                Nurse Christine Chapel          Ensign Pavel Chekov              Ensign Lyle               Ensign Rachel Lanz       Admiral James Komack          Ambassador Sarek             Amanda Grayson              Tela’at Stalik              T'Pala        Natahia             Grower Mahali        various unnamed Growers         unnamed Romulan pirate      various unnamed Romulans

Starships and/or Starbases: USS Enterprise NCC-1701, Starbase 12, Galileo II NCC-1701/7, unnamed and unclassified small Romulan fighters  

Planets: Aritani and Vulcan

My Spoiler filled summary and review: The adventure begins with a landing party from the Enterprise visiting the planet Aritani.  The Aritanians are former space faring people who surrendered advanced technology to live a simple life with nature as independent farmers.  So, they are like the Amish except they are from an alien world, and they don’t follow and real strict religion. Unfortunately, they are now under attack from an unknown enemy who is destroying their villages and killing their people.  The Federation has offered to help.  Kirk explains that they are not here to change their way of life.  Although they would love to have them as Federation members Starfleet helps is free regardless. Their leader Natahia is skeptical but desperate.

Trying to help a reluctant people

Spock wants to explore the nearby hills as his tricorder as he tries to find out more about the natural minerals of the planet to see if he can explain why they have been attacked recently.  When he doesn’t return, they go out looking for him.  They find him and it appears that he has fallen down a steep hill and is severely injured with broken bones all down his left side.  Most importantly his injuries to his head have resulted in severe brain damage.  Spock’s status as a Vulcan/Human hybrid complicates potential treatment.  

While Spock is being treated, Aritani is under attack again.  Even though there was a shield up the enemy fighters managed to get through.  They devastate Aritani and the Aritanians.  It is clear from the attackers’ ships that they are Romulans.  What the Romulans want with the planet and how they were able to get through the shield are mysteries.  The incident kills Natahia’s faith that Starfleet is able to protect her people and she requests they leave.  If the Romulans kill all of them so, be it so long as they are living their true lives. 

Romulan attack!!

Back on the Enterprise, a neurologist named Dr. Emma Staenz has been transferred to the ship and given Mr. Spock’s case.  Her prognosis is bleak; his injuries are affecting his logical thinking and have caused the Vulcan mind rules to vanish.  He is now incapable of controlling his telepathic abilities which cause him great pain.  Staenz recommends Kirk to find a temporary replacement for Mr. Spock. 

Kirk and Staenz work out together.  It turns out the good doctor grew up on a high gravity planet giving her great strength for a person her size.  She is more than a match for Captain Kirk, as he ends up hitting the deck more than she does.  There also might be something darker about her because when she is alone with Spock, she tries to force a mind meld and starts a suspicious line of questioning.  She and Dr. McCoy start to see each other romantically. 

Trying to treat Mr. Spock

When the pirates return the Enterprise is able to capture a pirate ship.  The Romulan pirate will not cooperate refusing to answer any questions posed to him.  In Sickbay Spock is getting somewhat better.  His voice comes and goes; he has a hard time remembering people’s names and ranks but does enjoy hearing music.  Spock is aware of his condition and is unhappy about it.

Things are starting to go bad.  First, the Romulan prisoner is murdered, and the murder was made to look like suicide.  Second, it appears that Mr. Spock has attempted suicide himself.  When he awakes Spock claims not to remember but denies trying to commit suicide.  He requests to be sent home to Vulcan and McCoy approves. Staenz objects to sending him away, leading to her first lovers quarrel with McCoy.  She, however, relents.  

Spock has not been himself

Their shuttlecraft, Galileo II, nearly crashes like its famous namesake predecessor, but they get out of it okay.  Their trip is delayed as Scotty has to make repairs.  While they are gone, back on the ship Kirk is injured in a workout routine with Staenz.  While she is treating him, he kisses her and then passes out.  It looks like a love triangle brewing.  The next morning, Lt. Tomson, the Enterprise’s current chief of security, tells the tired Captain that her primary murder suspect is Scotty.  Like the last time Scotty was accused of murder, Kirk doesn’t believe it.  However, he has to let her issue an arrest warrant when he fails to appear on time.

Spock returns home to discover his parents have taken in a young Vulcan woman.  Like Spock, T’Pala is half human/half Vulcan although the reverse with a human father and Vulcan mother.  Her mother died and she was raised by her father she hopes to join the Vulcan diplomatic service and serve under Sarek.  Her father’s status as a criminal makes this difficult. 

Spock being treated at home.

              Spock’s home return is not going well.  He is not relearning the mind rules as expected.  He refuses to help T’Pala with her control even though that is one thing he is currently good at.  Worse, he ends up barking at his mother who was just trying to help.  At one point he thinks about swallowing all of his pills and just ending it. He doesn’t, the next day he makes apologies to all concerned and resumes his lessons. 

Spock has a difficult recovery

Back on the ship, McCoy and Staenz make up and are on romantic terms.  Kirk is hosting a “Journey to Babel”-type of conference to deal with the Aritani situation.  The new first officer, Lieutenant Commander Varth Regev, is very useful when it comes to dealing with the Tellarites.  Scotty returns and is arrested and immediately cleared since he had an airtight alibi.  This conference truly resembles the Babel Conference, when two ambassadors are murdered.  Kirk becomes suspicious of the exact nature of Staenz’s mission.  He discovers that she is actually a Starfleet Intelligence Agent working for Admiral James Komack.  A device is discovered on Regev showing him to be a Romulan spy.

Back at home Spock drops his medication and starts to recover he relearns the mind rules in record time.  His recovery is halted by an attempted assassination on him and his father.  They are saved by T’Pala, who revels she had been working with the Romulans who came to her after she had been rejected for her career and felt isolated from Romulan society.  She had told them of Spock’s recovery and they attacked, but she felt close toward Spock’s family, so she saved them.  Before Spock loses consciousness, he sees her commit suicide with a phaser.

Since T’Pala disintegrated herself, Spock is blamed for the attack on his father which they think is a murder/suicide.  Kirk upon hearing this now wants to head to Vulcan, Staenz tries to talk him out of it, but Kirk is determined to help Spock.  When they get to Vulcan Kirk and McCoy go down to see Spock.  When he wakes up, they explain the situation to him.  Since Sarek is expected to recover Spock is not concerned about the blame as Sarek is expected to recover and will explain everything to the authorities.  Spock knows why he was injured; he had to jump to avoid certain death if the Romulans had caught him.  Spock tells Kirk and McCoy that the drugs Staenz gave him were delaying his recovery and increasing his symptoms not helping him.  It turns out Staenz knew this would happen as she is co-author of a paper that describes its effects on Vulcans.  Staenz is a double agent Romulan spy. Regev was framed. By the time they learn this she has escaped, injuring the chief of security in the process.

Back in disguise 

   The Enterprise heads back to Aritani where Regev managed to locate the Romulan base.  Kirk disguised himself as a Romulan again, and he and Spock beam down to see if they could expose and sabotage the place. While there they run in Staenz again, whose real name is Subcommander Tanirius.  It turns out she is a triple agent and that her true allegiance is not the Romulan Preator or the Federation but rather a reform movement in Romulus that seeks to bring down the tyrannical imperial government. She helps the two of them escape and sets the base up for destruction.  After they get back to the ship the base is destroyed but six fighters escape leaving our mystery lady’s fate up in the air.  McCoy is hopeful that she is okay.  The Aritani accept the Federation’s help and defending their home.   

Additional thoughts: This was one of the best Star Trek books that I had read in a while.  One of the main things I liked about the story was that even though the author invented some interesting characters they didn’t displace the main Star Trek cast from the story.  The story was an exciting traditional Star Trek adventure that took advantage of the book format to give us more depth.

While reading the book I referred to myself the people of Aritani as the “space Amish” since they turned their backs on technology to live like the world never developed past the 19^th century.  I had to question Captain Kirk’s judgement when it came to placing the crew on shore leave on this planet.  They Aritanians barely wanted the Federation’s help do really want to send down multiple landing parties of people whose sole purpose is recreation?

I thought it was creative to have Spock’s status as a Vulcan/human hybrid make it difficult for his injuries to be diagnosed and treated.  The fact that Vulcan brains and human brains function differently makes it hard to plot the proper course of treatment. Do you treat him more as a human or Vulcan?  One might think Vulcan, but Spock’s right-handedness suggests otherwise.   

Scotty accused of murder again.  Poor Mr. Scott, all he tries to do is help, yet people often want to accuse him of killing people. Good thing for him is this time it was much easier to prove that he didn’t do it.

McCoy falls hard for women, doesn’t he?  He only knows them for a short time, and he gets all committed and remains in love with them for quite some time.  He should learn to let go more, like his good buddy Captain Kirk.

A short while

For some time

I found the “Vulcans don’t apologize” to be a bunch of baloney.  We see them apologize all the time.  How else are they going to admit fault and take responsibility for their actions especially if those actions unintentionally caused someone harm.  Also, sometimes people have legitimate excuses for things like tardiness, how would any society function if they were not able to address them.

Lieutenant Commander Varth Regev turned out to be a more interesting character than I originally thought.  I really like the way he handled the Tellarites situation.  It was a neat reveal that it turned out to be a Starfleet intelligence officer the whole time.

 T’Pala was such a sad and tragic case.  The Vulcan/human hybrid with nowhere to turn. It was easy to feel for the poor girl when she told Spock that no Vulcan male wanted to bond with her.  All she wanted to do was fit in and this was precisely what was not allowed.  She had no home anywhere and that led to her being manipulated by the Romulans.  It was easy to understand why Spock and his family felt for her and he continued to cover for her so she could have dignity in death.  It is too bad that Spock didn’t meet her when he was healthy and in control.  She could have been his perfect mate.

 Finally, the Emma Staenz reveal was perfect.  The best twists in a story are ones you don’t see coming yet seem obvious when you look back on it.  Her advanced strength for her size makes more sense when you remember that Vulcan/Romulans have enhanced strength.  I was constantly guessing throughout the book to what side she was truly on, and every time I thought I figured it out the author would pull out some new information that made me realize I was wrong but maybe I was right before, most likely I was wrong there too.  

Should it be canon: I see nothing in this story that should prevent me from being canon in official Star Trek lore.  Given the story is great I love to add it to official Star Trek canon.

Cover Art: We have Spock’s left side profile on the viewer’s right and in front of Spock’s face are Kirk, McCoy, and Emma Saenz. Behind all of them is a mountain range.

Final Grade: Final Grade 5 of 5