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, an 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 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