MURDER WHERE THERE SHOULD BE NONE II: THIS TIME THERE IS A LOT MORE KILLING

 

Name: Demons

Author: JM Dillard

Publication Date: 7/1986

Publisher: Pocket Books (Star Trek #30)

Page Number: 251

Historian’s Note: Some time after the events of the book Mindshadow

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 Ingrit Tomson                   Lieutenant Stryker             Lieutenant (junior grade) Mohamed al-Baslama                Nurse Christine Chapel          Ensign Pavel Chekov              Ensign Anitra Lanter             Ensign Lisa Nguyen   Ensign Sanghoon Cho       Ambassador Sarek             Amanda Grayson              T'Ylle            T'Sai        Silek             Soltar        Starnn       

Starships and/or Starbases: USS Enterprise NCC-1701, USS Surak (Registration unknown)

Planets: Vulcan and Beekman's Planet

My Spoiler filled summary and review: The story begins with a murder.  A Vulcan scientist, named T’Ylle, is on an assignment to Beekman’s Planet researching the end of an ancient civilization that appears to have torn itself apart in madness.  The madness isn’t in the past however as her own research team comes down with it resulting in them murdering each other including her.

Sarek has a reunion with his brother, a researcher named Silek.  They haven’t seen each other in decades as Silek has been on an archaeological mission that has taken him away from Vulcan.  They have returned and Sarek is sorry to learn that his brother has recently been made a widower.  Silek reports that his father-in-law and mentor has been acting strangely even beyond the actions of a grieving father.  Sarek gets to meet this Vulcan named Starnn.  Upon meeting Sarek, Starnn gives him a gift one of the relics taken from the expedition.  Sarek refuses as it should be in a museum, but the two other Vulcans insist that he take it as they have so many of them.  It is reasoned that as an ambassador, Sarek can show the object to foreign dignitaries.  With that Sarek accepts the gift.

Sarek and Amanda

Sarek brings his brother home for a reunion with Amanda.  Silek has never met Spock but is amazed to learn that he is in Starfleet.  Amanda and Silek get caught up with information about each other’s family.  

On the Enterprise Lt. Tomson informs her second-in-command of his promotion, while a new young ensign in the Science department, who already has her PhD, defeats Mr. Spock in a chess match.  McCoy is quite taken with the beautiful young woman.  Her name is Anitra Lanter, and she can be a bit of a troublemaker.  As Captain Kirk finds out when she places a microphone in his shower and broadcasts his shower singing across the whole ship.

After being embarrassed in the shower

While this comic relief is going on the story also takes a serious turn as the officer who was happy to receive his promotion is found to have been murdered and not just killed but tortured to death.  As the crew of the Enterprise is dealing with this, on Vulcan Silek is concerned about his brother.  Sarek’s behavior is changing and the younger Vulcan feels that what happened with his expedition is happening here.

Mr. Spock discovers that it was Ensign Lanter’s responsibility for the prank played on Kirk and forces her to confess.  Kirk gives her a non-judicial punishment where she must tune up the ship’s engines. This is a task that to the unexperienced would take a number of days and she had to do it on her own time.  The Captain is somewhat amused when she inquiries about going on shore leave after she is done.  The Ensign, however, is really good at tuning up the engines and even Scotty is impressed with the results and hopes to have help out again someday.  As a result, she manages not to miss a bit of shore leave, to Kirk’s annoyance. 

Lanter being a pain in Kirk's side

  Kirk was sensitive at first to the idea of shore leave on Vulcan but so far everything seems okay.  Both Spock and McCoy seem to spend a lot of time with Ensign Lanter.  Later, Spock decides to check in on his parents.  At his childhood home Spock finds his uncle’s dead body, and he has been brutally murdered.  He locates his mother only to discover she is in a state hysteria. she tells Spock that something has taken control of his father and that before he died Silek wrote a letter to warn her.  

Spock mother is taking back to the ship.  It turns out their enemy is the closest thing to a demon in real life—hence the title of the book.  They are energy creatures that exit their containment boxes—the artifacts—by physical contact with a host.  Once they enter the body, they take control of the person’s mind and have access to all their memories and knowledge.  On top of that these aliens augment their host bodies strength and can make the body bend and twist in unnatural ways adding to the visual horror.  These aliens also are extreme sadists who enjoy torturing their victims to death. This is the reason for the murders. 

To make matters worse there is not one alien intelligence controlling their hosts but multiple, and this allows them to spread from host to host like a virus.  The only thing an infected individual needs to do to spread these tiny entities is make eye contact with an unaffected person.  In time this becomes widespread on Vulcan leading to multiple murders in places unaccustomed to any.  An officer on the Enterprise named Striker infects many crew members including Scotty who go on to infect many more. 

Crew falling under mind control

It is at this point we learn the truth about our new Ensign.  Lanter is a human being with a mutation that gives her telepathic powers.  In other words, she has the power to read minds sometimes even if she doesn’t want to.  She had been assigned to the Enterprise by Starfleet Command so Mr. Spock could help her control her powers.  This is why Spock has been spending so much time with her also intelligence became aware of possibility of the alien threat and realized her abilities would be an asset to fighting this threat.

With most of the ship under control of these demon aliens, Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Lanter lock themselves in auxiliary control.  They realize they must stop the Enterprise from traveling and infecting more planets and starships.  They plan to inflict some crippling damage to the ship that will take even the infected Scotty sometime to repair. Then they will escape by shuttle to head to Vulcan and use the research labs at the Science Academy to help find a way to destroy the “demons’ hold” on much of the population.  The whole plan starts to sour as Kirk is infected and appears to destroy the shuttle with the young Ensign on it to the horror of Dr. McCoy.  Infected Kirk gloats about the tortures he plans to put McCoy through.  It appears that Spock and McCoy are doomed but Lanter, who faked her death, gets them out of there.  All three escaped to Vulcan even though Spock really didn’t want to bring McCoy along.

Locked in Auxiliary Control

They land on Vulcan but not wanting to encounter anyone they decide to land in the desert and get head to the city on foot.  McCoy is injured and they stop at a Vulcan settlement run by Vulcans undergoing the practice of Kolinahr.  As a monastery they do not get many visitors, so they have been immune to the problem on most of Vulcan.  Spock alerts them to what is going on and asks them to take on no new students.  Spock and Lanter head out to try to solve the problem, and Spock orders McCoy to stay behind.  McCoy ignores the order and leaves and nearly gets killed again. 

Kolinahr Monastery

  

Back on the Enterprise, infected Kirk has been captured by Uhura and is then locked up alone.  This isolation cures Kirk of his infection.  Unfortunately, he soon loses Uhura to infected Sulu.  Kirk is able to lock up Tomson, and she gets better and the two of them capture the infected Sulu and Uhura.

On Vulcan, McCoy thinks he may have come up with a treatment that they could use on the infected.  Spock thinks his father would be a good guinea pig.  He goes to capture him but is severally injured in a battle with his infected father.  Lanter goes after Spock, but she gets infected as well.  The infected Sarek and Lanter capture McCoy, and they have him treat Spock’s injuries, all the while telling him of the tortures that they are going to put him and Spock though.  However, McCoy gets the jump on them when he knocks them both out with a phaser. 

It turns out the creatures thrive on spreading and feeding on the suffering of others, if an infected person is insolation for too long the entities will die.  The only exception to this is when they are in a type of suspended animation in their designer containers that we saw in the beginning of the story. McCoy mixes an anaesthetizing gas that will keep people out long enough for the evil creatures in them to die.  This works for both Sarek and Lanter.

The Enterprise enters orbit.  Kirk and some recovered crew members have gained control of the ship just as its engines were restored.  They take some fire from the Surak but manage to evade them.  Kirk gets in contact with Spock and McCoy and some explanations are given both ways.  Kirk volunteers the Enterprise to test McCoy’s gas, they transport containers of it up and put it to work. The Enterprise is normal in a few days. They then place it in the Vulcan atmosphere and peace is restored.  The remaining relicts that were untouched are placed under heavy guard.  

As the crew of the Enterprise and the population of Vulcan are recovering from what has happened, young Ensign Lanter decides Starfleet is not for her.  She has gotten what she needs to control her abilities from Mr. Spock and she feels that she is too much of a free spirit to stay in the rigid Starfleet hierarchy.  Lanter says her good-byes to Dr. McCoy and plants one more microphone in Kirk’s shower on the way out.  

Additional thoughts: This was a great Star Trek adventure. Star Trek doesn’t often do horror well just look at “Catspaw” and “Wolf in the Fold.”  This story is extremely exciting you don’t know what is going to happen next.  At any point any character can become infected, and you see no way out for the heroes.  I will add that the resolution of the story seemed to come easy.  That I think was necessary in terms of the story’s structure.  The demonic entities moved so fast that they would have overtaken the entire side of the galaxy in short time, therefore the resolution also must be able to move with great speed.   

I really enjoyed meeting Spock’s uncle Silek.  I was sad to see him die and I wish we could have seen more of him.  It was interesting in the beginning to see Sarek interacting with his brother as a peer as opposed to most of the time, he is presented as a sage giving advice.  In the book Silek is said to have a strong resemblance to Spock.  I can relate to that as I look more like my father’s youngest brother than I do him.  My favorite part is when we learn that Silek in choosing not to go into the family business of the diplomatic corps, his father stopped speaking with him and Sarek had to defy his father in order to maintain a relationship with his brother.  Since he has been on his science mission for over thirty years, he missed Spock’s birth and upbringing.  When he hears that Spock is a Starfleet officer, he lets Amanda know how impressed he is that his brother didn’t follow their father’s example and shun him.  Amanda doesn’t have the heart to tell him that he did.  Maybe Silek would still be impressed that Sarek at least got over it and returned normal relations.  We will never know.

In the book, “The Vulcan Academy Murders,” it mentioned that murder was unheard of in a thousand years on Vulcan. I titled that review “Murder Where There Should Be None.” This story puts that earlier one to shame for there wasn’t just a plan few murders but wholesale slaughter of thousands. Enough to try even cold Vulcan logic. 

I really didn’t like Lt. Tomson confrontation with Lt. Stryker.  Where she tells him that he killed her would-be-boyfriend Lt. Mohamed al-Baslama.  I really prefer Spock’s attitude when someone pointed out that his father killed his uncle he strongly responded with “My father has killed no one.” No one can be blamed for what these things did, and Tomson should be ashamed of herself. 

Ensign Lanter has been referenced by others as being a clear example of a “Mary Sue.” I disagree with that. While she certainly starts out that way I think it’s an intentional red herring.  Sues usually have a couple of traits that she is missing.  For one, Sues’ abilities are typically unexplained, however we do get an explanation: her telepathic powers.  It’s easy to repair engines when you can pull the information straight out of Scotty’s brain.  Also, she doesn’t die.  That is something that a Mary Sue is bound to do.    

When Spock and his company find themselves with the practitioners of Kloniare it makes me wonder if this is where Spock gets the idea to attempt it himself in “The Motion Picture.”  When McCoy is attacked by the le-matya, Spock makes reference to the loss of I-Chaya in the episode “Yesteryear.”

tragic encounter for young Spock

Lastly, why can’t the young Ensign Lanter leave poor Captain Kirk alone.  Do we really want to hear his shower singing all over the ship.  Does she really like Rocketman that much?

Should it be canon: I have no problem with this story being part of the official Star Trek canon as it does not conflict with anything and it’s a great story

Cover Art: The cover has Ensign Latner in civilian dress holding one of the containers that held these Demon entities. One her right is Dr. McCoy and on her left if Mr. Spock.  The cover is a lie, however, as both Spock and McCoy are dressed in their Starfleet monster maroon movie uniforms.  The story actually takes place in the last year of the five-year mission. 

Final Grade: Final Grade 5 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 Ingrit Tomson                                 Lieutenant Giorgo Mikahlis                   Lieutenant Mohamed Jahma              Lieutenant (junior grade) Mohamed al-Baslama                   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

 

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

 

MURDER WHERE THERE SHOULD BE NONE

 

Name: The Vulcan Academy Murders

Author: Jean Lorrah

Publication Date: 11/1984

Publisher: Pocket Books (Star Trek #20)

Page Number: 280

Historian’s Note: Right in between the episodes “Journey to Babel” and “A Private Little War” (Production order, of course)

Cast of Characters:  Captain James T. Kirk       Commander Spock              Dr. Leonard H. McCoy AKA “Bones”              Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu              Dr. Joseph M'Benga                   Ensign Pavel Chekov                 Ensign Carl Remington             Ambassador Sarek                 Amanda Grayson         Dr. Daniel Corrigan             Eleyna Miller            Sorel              T'Pau               Soton        Storn              T'Mir                   Sendet                   T'Par                   T'Zan

Starships and/or Starbases: USS Enterprise NCC-1701, unnamed Klingon K't'inga-class battle cruiser

Planets: Vulcan

My Spoiler filled summary and review: The adventure begins in the middle of a battle.  The Enterprise is attacked by a Klingon warship.  Kirk quickly outmaneuvers his opponent and all but destroys the Klingon ship.  They take a few Klingons prisoner and tend to their own wounded.  One of their wounded, Ensign Carl Remington, is extremely injured.  His injuries surpass that of Captain Christopher Pike and are more like that of Joe Bonham.  Fortunately for the injured Ensign there is hope.  On Vulcan, at the Science Academy, there is currently a medical experiment being done that could reverse the Ensign’s condition. Spock knows of this because the procedure is being used to treat his mother right now.  While the ship is being repaired Kirk, Spock, and McCoy all take Remington to Vulcan.

The Enterprise captures and damages an enemy ship!

       When they arrive, they stop at Sarek’s house and then go to the hospital where they meet Dr. Daniel Corrigan and Healer Sorel, the pair who had perfected the procedure.  Dr. Corrigan first tested the process on himself. (McCoy didn’t say anything but I am sure he was proud.) Corrigan was unnaturally aging fast the under the treatment he went from being a man in his physical sixties, restored to his physical thirties.  Amanda, Spock’s mother, and Sorel’s wife T’Zan were currently undergoing the procedure.  Corrigan states that this treatment is only for conditions that would otherwise be permanently disabling or terminal.  The process is risky as the body involuntary functions are all controlled by machine.  If the device somehow loses power even for a few seconds, the patient will die.  A number of redundancy systems are installed to prevent this.  

Spock and his comrades visit his father  

However, since Chekhov's gun must be fired, there is a power failure that results in the death of T’Zan.  Since Vulcans are touch telepaths and are mentally bonded to their spouses, her sudden death led her to instinctively call out to her husband.  This message through the mental link sends Sorel into shock and his own mind starts to shut down, and Vulcan intervention is needed and they create a mind meld between Sorel and Corrigan and his friend helps him survive.  With T’Zan dead her and Sorel’s adult children, Soton and T’Mir, arrive back home with a little assistance from Captain Kirk.  During T’Zan’s funeral a male Vulcan named Sendet shows up to make an offer for T’Mir to become his mate.  Making a pass at someone during their mother’s funeral is just as off putting to Vulcans as it is for humans.  Sendet is sent packing but not before he expresses anger at humans at this ceremony.

Angry Vulcan man

After the ceremony is over T’Mir takes a pass herself at her father’s long-time friend.  It appears that T’Mir has had a Celine/Rene-type crush on Dr. Corrigan. The newly de-aged doctor starts to warm up to the idea when he discovers that her family supports the match.

Shortly after that another power loss results in the death of Ensign Remington.  The death of two patients dying in one in a million type accidents convince Captain Kirk there must have been a murder.  Others protest that there has not been a murder on Vulcan since the modern age began.  Because of what happened in “Amok Time,” Kirk doesn’t really buy that claim.  Kirk concludes that one of the patients was the target and the other was killed to through investigators off, or the target was the research team’s legitimacy someone wants to see them fail.  Kirk begins an investigation and begins to interview likely suspects.

They attempt to track which computer was used to sabotage the stasis chambers.  However, the memory banks overload, starting a fire. While helping treat the wounded McCoy notices the medical computer is giving of the wrong medical diagnosis to patients.  McCoy remembering the incident in “Court Martial” where Spock’s chess program was corrupted exposing sabotage.  (What we since the late 1980s called a “computer virus.”)  This is evidence of sabotage to the Academy’s computer system. 

Kirk, after getting treated for burns, proceeds with his investigation and he interviews T’Pau, and leaves both impressed with her and a little embarrassed about suspecting her.   After returning he is invited by Eleyna Miller to go out in the dessert to observe T'Khut and its moon.  The pressure was off as Sendet attacked Corrigan when he learned of his relationship with T’Mir.  It is now assumed that he was targeting Corrigan’s research. 

Kirk goes off on his date while Sendet is forced to undergo a Verification ceremony.   The Verification ceremony is a forced mind meld done by healers, to determine guilt or innocence.  During the Verfication's group mind meld, it is discovered that Sendet is a member of the Followers of T'Vet, a minority Vulcan group hoping to return Vulcan to its warlike past.  When they look into his actions they find he is innocent of the two murders.  He may be a throwback and follows a violent unpopular philosophy, but he is no murderer.

While Kirk and Miller are on their date, Kirk slips and is injured with a broken ancle making it impossible for him to walk.  Miller says she is going to get help but does not return.  Kirk did not fall, he was pushed.  Fortunately, he told McCoy where he was going a McCoy grabbed a vehicle and rescued Kirk.  Before Kirk could recover and revel the identity of the killer to McCoy, Miller goes ahead with her plan to kill Amanda.  She then feels that Sarek will need to be saved, and he will then fall in love with her.  She fails because she is stopped by Sarek, Spock, and Sorel.  Miller is exposed as the villain; she is judged to be mad and sent elsewhere on Vulcan for treatment.

Time to fill Amanda in

The story ends with everyone gathered around Amanda explaining to her everything that happened.

Additional thoughts: It’s not the first Star Trek story to be a murder mystery. We have seen them before in “The Conscience of the King,” “Wolf in the Fold,” and “Journey to Babel.” It’s not Star Trek’s specialty but it is something they will do from time to time. I generally enjoyed this story but for other reasons. Mostly learning about Vulcan culture, what it is like for non-Vulcans on Vulcan, and interaction between the characters.

The very beginning features a fight with Klingons.  Immediately after reading “Tears of the Singers” where Klingons, such as Kor, are treated with complexity it was a bit of a 180° shock to have Spock dismiss all Klingons as “illogical but predictable.” Well, I suppose he was just speaking in generalizations.

I couldn’t help not thinking of Captain Christopher Pike in this book.  If such medical treatment was available would Spock have risked everything to get him to Talos IV?  Could this have restored his lost abilities?

Sarek was a lot kinder and more open than he was in “Journey to Babel.”  He is actually likeable in this book. He seems generally interested in catching up with his son and getting to know his friends. There is a great scene where Kirk and Sarek are entertaining each other with stories from their pervious adventures that I enjoyed quite a bit. 

I don’t understand why T’Pau was so surprised to see Captain Kirk alive.  I thought she had been informed about what had happened by the Enterprise.  I had always assumed that is why she contacted Starfleet to clear the crew of any wrongdoing by coming there. In this book she starts as a bigoted jerk, before revealing her more complex and interesting traits.

T'Pau

The whole T’Mir-falls-in-love-with-Corrigan story has grooming vibes all over it.  I just have to keep reminding myself that these are aliens not humans with different biological and cultural standards than us.  Also, it was clearly generated by T’Mir.  If I didn’t know that author is a woman, I would swear this was a man’s fantasy.  (I say that as an unmarried 43-year-old, who will be a 44-year-old tomorrow.)

 There is some timeline confusion they often reference “Amok Time” as if it were two years ago.  However, in this book we see Dr. McCoy recruit Dr. M'Benga to the Enterprise.  This explains why he was not involved in Sarek’s operation that McCoy performed.  However, he is in the very next episode.  All of these are part of season 2, which to me has always meant that they happened in the same year roughly.

Now for the plot twist.  I have always said that a good twist is one you don’t see coming but when you go back and check the evidence has been right there all along and you blame yourself for not seeing it. This I would give this twist a “C” grade. That’s because although there was nothing that I could see that made it clear she was committing the murders. There was the warning about the desert being fatal, I totally missed it when she invited Kirk out there.  I thought it was just humans being stupid. It was actually the perfect place to try to kill him.

Should it be canon: I have no objections to this story being canon with exception to the statements about “Amok Time” being two years ago.  

Cover Art: Spock is in the Vulcan desert with T'Khut in the night sky. Spock has a phaser pointed at a le-matya.  It’s cool and all but it’s also a lie, as this scene appears nowhere in the book.

Final Grade: Final Grade 4 of 5