CAUGHT BETWEEN KLINGONS AND THE CHATALIA

 

Name: World Without End   

Author: Joe Haldeman  

Publication Date: 2/1979

Publisher: Bantam Books

Page Number: 150

Historian’s Note:  Sometime after Planet of Judgement

Cast of Characters:  Captain James T. Kirk       Commander Spock              Dr. Leonard H. McCoy AKA “Bones”              Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott AKA “Scotty”       Lieutenant Commander Andre Charvat           Lieutenant  Hikaru Sulu              Lieutenant Nyota Uhura              Lieutenant Martin Larousse                Lieutenant B. "Tuck" Wilson           Lieutenant Sydny          Lieutenant Gary              Nurse Christine Chapel          Ensign Pavel Chekov      Ensign Glak Sōn           Ensign Berry            Ensign Amstel         Ensign Parker Tinney              Ensign Fitzsimmons           Ensign Masters            Crewman Jakobs                      Captain Kulain                     Kal                          Karez                     W'Chaal                   T'Kyma        T'Lallis         T'oomi

Starships and/or Starbases: USS Enterprise NCC-1701, IKS Korezima, unnamed-crashed Klingon ship, Chatalia

Planets: none

My Spoiler filled summary and review: In their normal course of exploring space, the Enterprise comes across something that seems to resemble a generational ship.  Every now and again they find one of these relics that predates warp drive.  However, this one has not come from any Federation world but rather from a solar system that died thousands of years ago.  The vessel is huge, and sensors indicate there are millions of life forms living in a planet-like environment.  It has a problem with its current rate of deceleration, it should come to a complete stop nowhere near a star, and this will mean it will run out of energy to absorb and everyone will die.

The Enterprise finds something strange

Captain Kirk has always felt that extinction means a culture can’t develop anymore, therefore he decides the Prime Directive doesn’t apply and will mount a rescue.  He has a landing party organized under the banner of a “confrontation team” that consists of himself, McCoy, and a few security personnel.  Giving the strange metal that this thing is made out of they want to make sure their transporter will work first.   Spock and Uhura send down a beacon and when they can communicate with it, they decide to send the landing party.  Which turns out to be a huge mistake because although they can beam things in easily enough, they are unable to beam things out. “The confrontation team” is stuck.

When the landing party beamed down, they found that the natives are strange creatures that sort of resemble flying squirrels on Earth.  They have large towers, and the crew sees many of the locals flying from building to building. It is both their wings and the low gravity (lower than Earth’s moon) that gives them the power of flight or at least gliding.  Even after the Starfleet personnel materialized in the public square the landing party was ignored by the locals. It wasn’t until Kirk tried to talk with them that they screamed and scattered.  After a few moments an armed and organized group with a leader shows up.  This one is a little more open to taking, but not really listening.  This person cannot believe that there is an “outside” where people can come from.  He thinks they must be “magicians,” who are the ruling group on this planet.  Kirk and company cannot get the locals, known as the Chatalia, to accept the truth but McCoy convinces them that they might be magicians with amnesia.

The Enterprise is known to encounter bizarre aliens

They are taken from the public square and brought to “police headquarters” for lack of a better term.  There the landing party’s weapons are taken but they are allowed to keep their medical bag, tricorders, and universal translator.  There they learn about the society of Chatalia.  To explain this, I will quote from the book directly when Spock was entering a Captain’s Log.

“Every individual belongs to a family and a caste level assigned to him.  He may only speak to members of his own caste, or those immediately above or below him.  Isolation of the individual is further intensified by the fact that each family has its own language.  Thus, a second-class carpenter might be allowed to speak to a second-class baker, but they wouldn’t be able to understand one another.

“Therefore one of the largest families is the interpreter family.  Almost every transaction beyond the level of simple barter requires one of these Chatalia.

“The magicians, who are relatively few in number, are exempt from the caste restriction, and may speak to anyone, although they also require interpreters.  They evidently have only two castes, first and second, and the first-caste individuals are rarely seen.  Their main function seems to be reproduction, which the informer claims is done by magic.

“The population is strictly controlled.  When an individual dies, a replacement is delivered, after a lag time of about two years.

“The word ‘child’ does not translate.  According to the informant, fully grown individuals are delivered by the magicians to the lan-Chatalia, who live in the rural areas surrounding the city.  There they are trained, and eventually delivered to their families.” (pg. 34-35)

The Enterprise finds something interesting near the surface of Chatalia.  It is a century-old wreck of a Klingon cruiser.  Upon expecting the wreck Lt. Sulu’s team discovers some bodies of a few dead Klingons, but not enough for the whole crew, and some recordings.  They listen to the recordings to find out that the ship was pulled to the surface of Chatalia and that attempted to flee causes ship’s hull to be damaged.  That their power was drained, eventually they used the last of their power to beam everyone down except the priests who all committed ritual suicide.  Shortly after discovering the fate of the Klingons, the bridge crew with orders from Spock checked to make sure the ship was at safer distance than the Klingons were when they were caught.  It turns out the Enterprise was already trapped and being pulled in. 

The Klingons causing trouble

The landing party gets to meet a magician, who is already angry with the regular Chatalia, named W'Chaal, for getting too friendly with them.  It turns out that unlike the regular Chatalia magicians get to keep their memories every time they are reborn. T'Lallis, the magician, access Kirk and his party of being Klingons.  This both offends and amuses the Starfleet officers.  They try to explain that they are not Klingons, but T’Lallis, isn’t having it. 

The Enterprise is going to have to be abandoned in a few days if the power drain continues.  They deactivate everything to slow it down.  Confident that Scotty can lead the ship through the necessary steps if they are to be evacuated, Spock decides to join the landing party.  He arrives to knock out T’Lallis and free the captured crew.  They realize that in order to save the ship they will have to make contact with those doing the actual running of Chatalia, the vessel. They reason that the first-class magicians are those very people.  

One of Chatalia trying to figure out how a phaser works caused an explosion in the lab killing himself and several of his fellows.  The landing party gather their remaining phasers to take both T’Lallis and W’Chaal prisoner and demand to be brought to the land where first-class magicians are.  Along the way they get to learn more about Chatalia society.  When they “borrow” a cart from a farmer they learn that they aren’t actually stealing it because all property belongs to the magicians.  More importantly the landing party learns that when making new replacement Chatalia sometimes they screw up the process and end up with deformed creatures who can’t be placed with the rest of society.  So, they are dumped in this area all to themselves where they live as predatory monsters.  The landing party is able to battle these poor creatures and get part them to the obstacle.

It turns out the Enterprise wasn’t the only ship trying to explore Chatalia.  The IKS Korezima has intercepted the Enterprise’s transmission to Starfleet.  Instead of getting too close to get caught like both their adversary and predecessors, Captain Kulain is going to attack from a distance with what they call a nova bomb.  To make sure the Organian Peace Treaty isn’t violated the send the Enterprise a warning, knowing full well that the Enterprise can’t do anything about it. 

Scotty makes a plan to shoot down the bomb by staying behind and manning the Enterprise’s phaser banks.  On the surface have come to a point where they have to fly to get where they want to go, which is Magicians’ Island.  Fortunately, in this low gravity they can do that with artificial wings.  Ensign Parker Tinney, who has lived on the moon and flies there all the time, is sent down to coach them how. They attempt it but are apprehended half-way by the magicians, which is just as well because that is where they wanted to go. 

With the Enterprise freezing with no life support on, Scotty is keeping warm with a fire.  It turns out the Klingon bomb is a dud because the Chatalia absorbs all of its energy at impact.  The Klingons decide they are going to have to get closer and physically build a bomb inside Chatalia even if it costs them their lives.

The Enterprise surrounded in darkness 

On the Magicians’ Island the phasers no longer work.  To the landing party’s disappointment, it turns out the first-class magicians don’t know any more about that Chatalia’s status as a world ship.  Spock tries to mind-meld with one and nothing happens.  They bring them to what they call the Father Machine, this is where the magicians are reborn.  One of the red shirts tries to get red shirted, but the Father Machine spits him out.  It speaks declares that humans are gross—which I guess they could have predicted as the Catalia’s couldn’t touch the humans because of salt in the humans’ skin—and it says it wants to eat some Klingons.  Spock goes in actual gets reborn that he describes as just a transporter set to “slow.”  He is able to mind meld with the Father Machine.  The Father Machine explains that it is the only sentient life on this place.  It knows all about the ship slowing down and is cool with the idea.  It already has the capabilities to survive under such conditions with its technology.  So, the Enterprise crew was really just wasting their time.  It says it will let the Enterprise go if they can get it some more Klingons to eat and consume—not replace.  Spock agrees.  When back on the ship Spock contacts the Klingons and explains without any deception what the Father Machine is, what it plans to do, what their odds would be if taking this challenge (not good) and waits for them to respond. The Klingons are excited for the challenge and will face it like warriors.   With that the Enterprise is allowed to go along her way.    

Additional thoughts: This is a great story, fun to read, this strange world and its people are interesting that the reader will enjoy exploring with Captain Kirk and his crew.  And even though it was also good, I do like this story more than the author’s previous book: “Planet of Judgement.”  It manages to feel original even though this concept has been tried in the franchise a couple of times already.  The idea “let’s have some people in a spaceship who don’t know they’re in a spaceship they just think it’s their natural world,” was tried with first “For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky” and it was also for the Star Trek book “The Starless World.” In the later story the Klingons also poke their noses in.  I will state I liked this one the best out of the three, the alien world of Chatalia was a lot more fun to explore.  

There were a couple of science-y questions about some of the plot details like the whole issue of the pre-warp artificial world/generational ship decelerating?  I thought in space that would never happen that they would maintain whatever speed forever until they hit something.  Also, if life support is offline and Scotty is warming himself with the fire won’t the fire burn up all the limited oxygen that was left?  I am not sure about that last one, it was just a thought I had while reading the story.  The author decided to give Kirk a little bit of an origin story that would not line up with the rest of the series. I am breaking a little bit of my rule about not discussing future Trek and evaluate only by what existed at the time the work was created.  However, since Kirk was a Starfleet brat who followed his father into the service is so well known with the fandom, I couldn’t help but briefly mention it. 

So, Disney is still the 23^rd century?  And now they have a theme park on the moon!  I am really happy to hear that Disney is doing so well in the 23^rd century.  I bet the park on the moon is cool.  I wonder if other Federation worlds have a Disney resort?  I bet not Vulcan.

Okay I really don’t except the discovery at the end that the Chatalia are not really alive and just creations of the Father Machine.  Even if the Father Machine truly believes this and is responsible for their creation, they clearly have evolved beyond that.  T’Lallis and W'Chaal clearly had fully formed personalities.  W’Chaal was conservative but very intellectually curious.  He was eager to learn about these visitors and listen to their tales even though he might lose his life over it.   Even if he is replaced his new self wouldn’t have his memories.  T’Lallis is vain, full of himself, and entitled.  The very image of a born aristocrat.  It’s hard to reconcile that as being pieces of the Father Machine when T’Lallis was overly concerned with keeping secrets from W’Chaal.  It reminds me of Solipsism, a concept I have always rejected as being ridiculous in nature.  If true, every time I am talking on the phone, I am just talking to myself, for the purpose of amusing myself.  It makes my time working in a call center strange. I think the idea of the Father Machine being the only true living thing might have sounded great when it was a thought in the author’s mind, but after exploring the world it just comes off as weird foot note in the end of the story.

I really like how the Klingons were written here. When they were first introduced in “Errand of Mercy” they were shown to be a warrior race that loves combat.  Kor was salivating against the idea of facing Captain Kirk and hated his duty on Organia ruling over people who looked like farmers.  They also depicted this way under Kang in “Day of the Dove.”  For the rest of the series, however, they became rather sleazy fighting the Federation using cheap tricks.  The best example of that was “The Trouble with Tribbles” where the Klingons had a spy trying poison the Federation’s colony.  Most of the books reviewed for this blog so far have been the sleazy Klingons in almost every appearance.  These ones are warriors, and they are excited for the opportunity for a warrior’s death. 

 Spock compared the Father Machine to a transporter. The Father Machine uses saved patterns to recreate the dead.  During the Animated Series we often saw the Enterprise crew use the transporter for a cure.  Most notably the episodes “The Lorelei Signal” and “The Counter-Clock Incident.”  So, the story has clear precedent.  

Should it be canon: With exception to some minor details like Kirk’s farmer dad, I think yes, the main story would be a great addition to Star Trek canon. 

Cover Art: An odd cover, with Captain Kirk looking more like Ben Shapiro than William Shatner with his wrists bound. McCoy right behind him. Nothing but red background and picture of Chatalia in the bottom viewer’s right corner.

Final Grade: Final Grade 5 of 5

 

THE ENTERPRISE, WITH THE KLINGONS AND ROMULANS, ENCOUNTER A MAGIC SPACE GNOME

 

Name: Trek to Madworld

Author: Stephen Goldin

Publication Date: 1/1979

Publisher: Bantam Books

Page Number: 177

Historian’s Note:  Some time in between Turnabout Intruder and More Tribbles, More Trouble

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              Lieutenant Kyle       Lieutenant Ramona Placer          Lieutenant Solari               Lieutenant Leaming           Lieutenant Sydney             Lieutenant Rodrigues           Nurse Christine Chapel          Ensign Pavel Chekov             Ensign Ti-Chen             Captain Kostas Spyroukis                   Metika Spyroukis          Captain Kolvor         Commander Actius Probicol        Lieutenant Marcus Claudius Breccio               Enowil      

Starships and/or Starbases: USS Enterprise NCC-1701, IKS Destructor, ChR Talon

Planets: Babel, Enowil’s World, Epsilon Delta 4

My Spoiler filled summary and review: The story begins with Captain Kirk being very excited to have the Enterprise transport one of his boyhood heroes, Captain Kostas Spyroukis, back to his present home.  Spyroukis had been an explorer in the early part of the century who found and colonized over thirty worlds.  His final world Epsilon Delta 4 was where he decided to retire to and lead to complete Federation membership.  It was that last point to while he was on his current mission, he wanted his world not to be a colony but a fully functioning member world of the Federation right now.  He and his willful young adult daughter have argued passionately at this year’s Babel Conference.  Only to find themselves turned down flat.

Not a good Babel Conference this year

When the two came aboard Kirk was a bit let down that Captain Spyroukis didn’t want to talk, as he was both disappointed and exhausted.  His beautiful daughter on the other hand was quite willing to talk and went on and one about her position.  Kirk actually agreed with the Federation’s decision as the world was not yet developed enough, but he decides to let it go so he can continue to flirt with his hero’s hot daughter.  The two of them are getting along so well that Kirk gets to the point where he invites the young Metika Spyroukis to his cabin.  However as if he father’s senses that his daughter is about to score with Captain Kirk, he suddenly has a medical emergency and the two would be lovers are both called to sickbay.   

Kirk easily gets long with beautiful women

Captain Spyroukis is dying, but they don’t know what of.  Spock and McCoy team up and determine it is due to long-term exposure to the environment of Epsilon Delta 4.  Metika is okay because she hasn’t been there as long as her father. They, however, are unsure where the final cut off point is.  They send their research to Starfleet who tests and confirms their hypothesis.  Starfleet Command orders the Enterprise to evacuate the planet.   Kirk explains this to Metika who takes the news surprisingly well.  She is disappointed but realistic. A dying Captain Spyroukis confides to Kirk that he knew there was a risk to the settlement, but he was desperate for one last triumph.  He tells his fellow captain that he was always disappointed none of his worlds were ever named in his honor and he just wanted this last victory.  After a brief meeting with his daughter, he passes away.

Since time is of the essence Kirk studies the navigation charts to see if there is any way he can get there faster than the current five-day estimate.  He discovers they are not taking the most direct route to the planetary system.  After talking to Lt. Sulu, the Lieutenant explains that the more direct route has a hazard warning.  The type of hazard warning however is one a Constitution-class heavy cruiser should be able to push off without problem.  Kirk orders them to change course.

Change course

This turns out to be a mistake because they come across an energy bubble in space that is on course to intercept them.  Spock, on the bridge, tries to change course, but the energy bubble follows them.  The energy bubble envelops the Enterprise and power goes off all over the ship.  Despite no gravity and complete darkness Kirk makes his way to the bridge.  Shortly after Kirk arrives the power returns and this allows the Enterprise to explore this new dimension that they are now in.  

Sucked in 

What they quickly find is there are two other ships and neither one is friendly.  One if Klingon and the other is Romulan.  Each ship wonders if one of the other two is responsible for bringing them here.  The Klingon ship tries to fire but finds its weapons are useless here.  It is at this point that Enowil introduces himself.  He looks like a gnome from Earth legends, but he demonstrates abilities that remind the crew of the time they dealt with Trelane.  He can appear and disappear at will, he seems to know everything that is going on, and at one point he makes the walls on the bridge grow ears! (He quickly undoes it.)  Enowil enjoys Mr. Spock’s manner.  He admits that he both knew and disliked Trelane as he feels his parents spoiled him.  He reveals that he is an Organian, however his personality didn’t suit his fellow Organians so he was asked to leave.  He was given his own little dimension to play in.   However, he has a problem.  He doesn’t really know what that is but he would like some help trying to identify and solve it.  Whoever does this will earn a great prize.  Enowil will allow the winner to wish for anything they want and he will grant it with his powers.  His offer is open to all three crews but if they don’t want to participate, they are free to leave, in fact he can get them to where they want to go faster. 

The ship meets an interesting Gnome

Kirk has a meeting with his senior officers, his first instinct is to turn Enowil down.  However, he is afraid of the Klingons or the Romulans winning and being able to wish for anything they want which would put the Federation at a great disadvantage in the future.  Kirk then agrees to participate and organizes a landing party that will include Metika, since her world’s people have the most to lose.  Enowil uses his powers to bring them to his planet.  Its dark and dawn is about to break, when the sun rises it has Spock’s name spelled out on it.  

No friends

Throughout their time on the planet members of the three crews keep trying to guess his problem however Enowil shows the solution every time.  One guesses because his world is bare, then Enowil takes them to a special zoo with neat creatures.  Another guesses he needs a world with intelligent beings in it not just dumb animals.  Enowil shows he has quite a large population on his planet.  Another guess is everyone on the planet just does what he tells them and cannot think for themselves.  Enowil then takes them to a debate center where there are arguments.  McCoy at one-point wonders about sex.  Enowil shows that they have ever type of sex on the planet.

As this continues to go on the Klingon Captain grows tiresome.  He tries to recruit his Romulan counterpart and Kirk into a conspiracy against each other so he can win this by default.  Both turn him down flat.  He does, however, see weakness in Metika.  He uses her concern over her neighbors’ lives to manipulate her into putting a bomb on the Romulan ship.  When she attempts it, she is caught by a Romulan guard, named Breccio, who tries to shoot her, but his weapon fails.  The two of them are transported to Enowil’s world.  They fought for a bit but decided to team up and find a way out.  They go on several adventures, one which involves a pterodactyl.  By the time they make it back to the main group, the Romulan Breccio, even covers for Metkia.  This, however, doesn’t fool his commander and his fate seems sealed.  The Klingons try to put a bomb on the Enterprise but Kirk manages to stop them in time and Enowil saw to it that the bomb wouldn’t work anyway. 

Klingons placing bombs

 Kirk was able to solve the puzzle.  What Enowil needed was third party preceptive.  He needs other people who he didn’t create to appreciate and critique his creation.  Kirk wishes for Enowil to create a new planet named Spyroukis for the colonists from Epsilon Delta 4 to live on healthy and free.  Metkia and Breccio are allowed to stay too, as much as the Romulan Commander hated it.   Later, back on the ship Kirk confesses that faced with the reality of having anything he could want he just said the first thing that came to his mind as opposed to truly thinking about it. For if he thought about it for too long, he didn’t know what he might have wished for.   

Additional thoughts: This was a fun story to read.  It has the right pace, and although short it doesn’t seem rushed. Enowil is such a fun character, I like the Spock immediately makes the Trelane connection.  I also enjoy Enowil response to it.  Enowil origin turned out to be great: an Organian kicked off Organia. It is an impressive creative idea to take the ultrasoft and sensible Organians, but also all-powerful, and create one that is with an over jubilant personality.  He is not mean like other tricksters he just wants some friends.

 There were some technical issues with the book I took notice of.  The book refers to McCoy’s rank as lieutenant commander as it was in the entire classic Star Trek series.  However, in the Animated Series he wore the rank of full commander, and in the book “Vulcan” he is said to have the same rank as Spock and Dr. Tremain.  So, I would guess that means this book would take place before the Animated Series and the earlier book.  Which is fine.  The one thing I didn’t like was when they referred to the Enterprise as a Constellation-class ship, it’s a Constitution-class ship.

Something the early part of this story established is that the Federation has rules and regulations for a reason and that is a good thing.  We begin with the Spyroukis father/daughter duo trying to convince the Federation Council to ignore its standards and give their world, with its only 700 people, full Federation membership.  Then it turns the whole thing is a giant deathtrap and no one can stay there anyway.  Yes, those who write regulations know what they are doing, and I don’t think we should spend much time questioning their wisdom.

I always want to acknowledge when a writer makes a conscious effort for us to get to know members of the Enterprise crew, who aren’t part of the senior staff or bridge crew.  There are supposed to be over 430 crew members, we should see more of them.  Even that small scene we got to see with Lt. Placer as the personnel officer was great.  I also appreciate when the author has the characters refer to their past adventures in the franchise, not only does it reward long-time fans by letting them know you as the author also remember but it would also make more sense, if the crew were real then they should be able to recall past events and make comparisons.

Its good to be remembered

Like in the book “Vulcan” the Romulans are space Romans.  I mean with a name like “Marcus Claudius Breccio,” it just screams Rome.  Also, the Klingons in this book live up to their usual treachery, in the tradition of poison grain in “The Trouble with Tribbles,” this Klingon commander likes to use bombs on his enemy’s engine rooms.  This reminds me of the episode “The Time Trap” where Kor would also try the bomb-in-the-engine-room trap.

While reading the book I kept going back and forth on to imagine the ChR Talon as Romulan Bird of Prey or as a D-7R class.  The reason for this confusion is the book doesn’t clarify what it is, but it does give conflicting details.  They hint that Captain Kolvor knows about the setup of the Romulan ship because they are allies who use the same technology—indicating that it’s a D-7R as the are the same as the K't'inga-class.  However, they also say that the Romulan ship is small and does not have a large crew aboard.  This would seem to indicate that it was the Bird of Prey.  Now I suppose it’s possible the during their alliance Kolor learned some things about the Bird of Prey, but he doesn’t seem to be the person anyone should trust.   

In the end, I must wonder how many more rebel Organians are out there.

Should it be canon: Absolutely, the story is great little addition to Star Trek. Like most episodes it’s self-contained.  Anything you need to know about the story is in the story itself.  Also, everything is resolved in story as well, so it doesn’t affect anything else in the franchise.   

Cover Art: The cover has Kirk, Scotty, and Chekov on the bridge of the Enterprise and they all have a shocked look on their faces.  Kirk is standing in front of his command chair, and Scotty is behind him on the viewer’s right.  Chekov is for some reason sitting at Sulu’s station.  The whole cover is odd because neither Scotty nor Chekov are major characters in this story.  They are there but they are not justified in being featured on the cover. 

Final Grade: Final Grade 5 of 5

 

KIRK AND THE ENTERPRISE CREW FIND A SIMPLE PEOPLE ON A COMPLEX OBJECT

 

Name: The Starless World

Author: Gordon Eklund

Publication Date: 10/1978

Publisher: Bantam Books

Page Number: 152

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 Gregory           Lieutenant  Hikaru Sulu              Lieutenant Nyota Uhura              Lieutenant Kyle                Nurse Christine Chapel          Ensign Pavel Chekov             Crewman Nathan Boggs          Crewman Arthur Kaplan          Crewman Martin      Thomas Clayton          Alhamisi Uhura       Princess Kyanna                Captain Kree         unnamed Klingon Officer   Ola                 Domo       Ay-nab

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

Planets: None

My Spoiler filled summary and review: The Enterprise is off exploring a new region of space.  No planets in this area, just some interesting stars.  The entire crew, including the Captain, is enjoying some time working on personal hobbies.  Then they find something strange, Spock reports to Kirk that they have come across a Starfleet shuttlecraft whose sole occupant claims to be Jesus Christ.  The shuttlecraft itself is from the USS Rickover, a ship that has been missing for thirty years.  When they bring the shuttlecraft onboard, they discover that “Jesus Christ” is in fact Thomas Clayton, a former Starfleet cadet.  He had been expelled from the Academy when his roommate, Jim Kirk, turned him in for cheating.  He then when into the merchant service where he enjoyed a lot of success, until he disappeared.  Now here he was saying the was the messiah and they all have to try to escape the wrath of a vengeful god.

Lost little shuttlecraft

As the Enterprise proceeds, they come across something that they never thought they would see: a Dyson’s Sphere.  It is basically a large megastructure built around a star, using most of the star’s energy to power itself.  Fascination soon turns to fear as they are pulled into the structure by a powerful and all of their navigation and weapons systems are all off-line.  Inside the sphere they discover that there exists a habitable world and a Klingon battlecruiser.  When they try to communicate with the Klingons all they get is a young officer, who is clearly not the captain, who proceeds to threaten Kirk and the Enterprise.   It is clear from his blundering that his ship is just as trapped, and he has no idea where his commanding officer is making Kirk suspect that he is on the planet.  Clayton escapes from sickbay and ends up on the bridge and seems to worship the Dyson’s Sphere before being taken into custody again.    

a nut

Kirk arranges of landing party of himself, Nurse Chapel, Lt. Uhura, Lt. Sulu, and a few red shirts to die in case things go wrong.  They beam down to the planet and begin exploring its rather pleasant environment.  Then a large predator shows up not only to threaten them—as their phasers don’t work down here—but also some local natives.  A small group of humanoids that scatter upon the predator’s appearance, leave only one young one who fell to face the creature.  However, Kirk chases the thing away and the native, who announces her name as Ola, is very pleased to be saved and is grateful to now have a strong husband in Captain Kirk.  Not familiar with local customs, Kirk nevertheless convinces Ola that he is not her husband, but they could instead be very good friends.  Although a bit disappointed she takes the landing party to her village and introduces them to the elder who is known as the Domo.  Domo seem to be a type of priest who is responsible for overseeing the worship of Ay-nab, their god.  Kirk decides to return to his original plan of talking to the Klingons and proceeds to go to where the tricorder tells him they are.

He meets the Klingon commander, Captain Kree, who immediately comes off as the friendliest Klingon that the crew has ever met.  With the Captain is a female Klingon who Kree introduces as Princess Kyanna, the rightful heir to the Klingon Empire who has been usurped by her uncle.  Kree led his ship to rebellion trying to put the Princess on the throne.  The Klingons believe that there is advanced weaponry to be found on this artificial world.  They don’t believe Ola’s people to be the dominant race and think there is another more intelligent species of Lyrians who have produced such weapons.  Ola thinks the weapons that the Klingons have found are just their sacred relics.  What the Klingons seek is to find the other species on this world.  Given that Starfleet sensory technology is superior to the Klingons, Kree thinks the Enterprise would have an easier time spotting these mystery beings than their own ship.  If Kirk is willing to cooperate, then Kree will share whatever weapons are found with him.  Ola wants to go as it is dangerous to be out at night.  Kirk tells Kree he will think about it but heads back to the huts prepared for the landing party by the Demo.  Ola asks to stay with the Captain in the hut he shares with some of the landing party.

Some Klingons are not so mean

Up on the Enterprise Thomas Clayton receives commands from Ay-nab and decides he must go back to the surface.  He steals a phaser and uses it to kidnap Dr. McCoy and Spock.  When they beam down, they are attacked by a “stranger,” one of the creatures that roam around in this world’s night.  Interestingly the phaser can work when Clayton is using it.  However, in the confusion Spock is able to nerve pinch Clayton.  They are able to take both Clayton and the stranger hostage and rendezvous with Kirk and the landing party.  It appears the “stranger” is dressed in an old Starfleet uniform, with the rank of commander, and his ship insignia is the Rickover’s.  Kirk tried to communicate with him, but the former officer is incoherent.

At this point they notice that Lt. Uhura is missing, and it turns out her father is on this world—or something that claims to be her father—and is now a “stranger” and her lures Uhura away from their huts and brings her with him to wear the strangers hang out.  Kirk goes to talk with the Demo and asks where he can find Uhura.  The Demo won’t tell him.  Kirk informs the Demo that the Enterprise has confirmed that their world is on track to crash into a black hole.  The Demo is upset by this and wishes to communicate with Ay-Nab.  Ola tells Kirk she knows where the strangers go, and Kirk allows her to lead him which allows him to rescue the Lieutenant. Ola is concerned Uhura is now a stranger, but Kirk brings her back anyway.

At this point the Demo is done communicating with Ay-Nab and is in a depressive state because his people are all going to die.  Kirk offers to bring him on his ship, but he needs to communicate with Ay-Nab too.  Ola once again steps up where Demo won’t and teaches Kirk the meditation technique to communicate with Ay-Nab.

Kirk and Ay-Nab have a discussion in which Ay-Nab explains that his people almost destroyed themselves with nuclear weapons, rebuilt, and repeated.  That this Dyson’s Sphere was constructed to give his people a new world with the understanding that he, Ay-Nab the sun, would be able to choose their end.  His choice was to fly toward a black hole.  Kirk explains to Ay-Nab that his world view is completely stupid and proceeds to outwit Ay-Nab and convinces him to let them all go.  The Enterprise, the Klingons, and Ola too.   Kirk and Spock finish the story with a conversation about the nature of Ay-Nab.   

Additional thoughts: Overall I thought this was a great book.  It reminds me a little bit of the classic episode “For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky.”  In both cases you have a population that is living in a moving space vehicle that is on a collision course with another space object, so everyone is going to die unless they leave or do something to alter its path, but the people have been convinced a machine is their god and it won’t acknowledge that there is even a problem.  Granted there are important differences.  Lyra was much larger than Yonada physically, but Lyra had a much smaller population.  Kirk, unlike McCoy, didn’t fall in love with the native girl and planned to live out the rest of his life with her.  In addition to that no one from the Enterprise is dying of a strange disease this time. Also, in this story the crew has to deal with the double threat of the Klingons.

Not the first people to worship a computer

One of the elements that makes this book work so well is the author having a strong understanding of who all these characters are and what makes them tick.  Not all Star Trek books can do this.  While reading I felt as if I was watching the original cast on screen.  I appreciated the elements of side humor as well, such as the rant about a needle in a haystack.  Another part about what makes this book good is you don’t have to be familiar with Star Trek in order to enjoy it.  If this was your first experience in the franchise, you would not feel lost as everything you need to know is quickly and easily explained.

So, what is up with Kirk’s old classmates who wash out at the Academy, join the merchant service, make millions, get lost, lose their minds almost totally, and they try to capture Kirk and the Enterprise crew?  In both cases they both end up dead in the end, although Clayton here was dead from the beginning, because according to Ay-Nab all the strangers were walking dead but they didn’t always realize it.  

You can't trust Kirk's old classmate

When Spock and Kirk discussed the nature of Ay-Nab it was a moment of pride for me. I had thought throughout the story the Ay-Nab was some kind of artificial intelligence and not some deity or a sentient sun.  So, when Spock proclaims this belief as well, I felt good to have come to the same conclusion as Mr. Spock.  The only problem that when Spock explained how Ay-Nab could communicate telepathically and told Kirk he received a message from the self-proclaimed god that he and his children were fine.  As soon as he said that I felt disappointment, because I was sure this was another case of Kirk talked the AI into killing itself again.  He let the Enterprise, the Klingons, and the locals go and flew into the black hole to die.  However, by suggesting that he kept his people and survived as if black holes are just gateways to other universes, and that Ay-Nab has survived than Kirk didn’t talk him to death did he?  Now granted maybe Ay-Nub just wanted to give Kirk a comforting message prior to his death.  Yeah, that’s go with that.

So, the old ship was the USS Rickover?  As in Hyman G. Rickover, the father of the nuclear navy?  I can see him having a ship named after him, what I find odd is when this book was published, he was still actively serving and would still for another four years.

So, is Ola now the last of her kind?  I didn’t hear of any of her people escaping Lyra so she may be headed for a lonely future.  Then granted the Federation is a wonderous place it is possible that she might find that husband she was always looking for.  I hope so for her Ola was a very nice young lady.

Should it be canon: Maybe, just maybe.  Everything else is perfect but one little thing. This isn’t the author’s fault either as Star Trek hadn’t explored the inner working of the Klingon Empire yet.  (This is one of those rare exceptions where I talk about later elements of Star Trek, which I mostly refuse to do.) However, we know the Klingons do not have an emperor at this time period, and the chancellorship is not decided by hereditary rights.  It is selected by the High Council.  Yet, the other elements of Star Trek contain non canonical elements yet the episode itself is canon.  (James R. Kirk, Romulans not having Warp Drive, etc.)  In addition, Kirk himself is left uncertain about the validity of the “Princess’s” claim.  Kirk mentions that most of Starfleet doesn’t really understand internal Klingon politics that well.  It is possible that the entire story was a ruse to gain Kirk’s sympathy and trust. So, let’s call this one a maybe. 

Cover Art: Captain Kirk is on the front of the cover with two Klingons aiming disruptors at him.  The Klingon closest to him looks angry.  There is a town of huts in the background, the sky is red and there is fog on the ground.  The cover is somewhat misleading as Captain Kree was rather quite courteous with him the moments they were together. 

Final Grade: Final Grade 5 of 5

 

SPOCK RUNS INTO A SPACE KAREN

 

Name: Vulcan!

Author: Kathleen Sky

Publication Date: 9/1978

Publisher: Bantam Books

Page Number: 175

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  Hikaru Sulu              Lieutenant Nyota Uhura              Lieutenant Kyle                Lieutenant Angela Mendoza          Lieutenant Jeff Williams                    Dr. Ruth Rigel             Nurse Christine Chapel          Nurse Angela Dickinson        Ensign Pavel Chekov      Ensign Theodore Lowrey            Ensign Donald Ackroyd            Ensign Octavio Hernandez          Ensign Alan Huff              Ensign Bill Johnson           Ensign Sikh            Ensign Rosaly Ybarra             Engineer Shigeda             Engineering Technician Hans Mueller       Crewman Fitzgerald          Crewman Jefferies          Crewman Martin      Dr. Katalya Tremain           Ambassador Sarek       Commodore David Stone                Captain Selik         Commander Maximinus Thrax       Licinius Thrax

Starships and/or Starbases: USS Enterprise NCC-1701, Starbase 11, the Romulan Bird of Prey ChR Decius, USS Calypso unknown registry number

Planets: Arachnae

My Spoiler filled summary and review: The story starts out with an unusual premise: the Romulan Neutral Zone, which we first learned of in “Balance of Terror”, is moving.   The book explains that when the treaty was being hammered out by diplomats they marked the territory of space that each power was to have and the Neutral Zone by using magnetic field strengths that no one expected to change for hundreds of years.  (By which time with any luck the Federation and the Romulan Star Empire would have long solved their differences.)  However some frequent ion storms have caused these magnetic fields to alter changing the once permeant boundary.  In the immediate term that means that the planet Ararchnae is going to be now part of Romulan space.  As to their knowledge there is no immediate concern as no intelligent life has been discovered.  However there are some on the Federation Council who feel that there might be and we shouldn’t allow those poor souls to fall into Romulan hands  They have sent over a famous biologist who McCoy says is “the best thing to happen to biology since Darwin” to help determine if there are any lifeforms worth protecting.  

Spock and McCoy preparing for Tremain

As soon as she beams aboard Tremain reveals herself to be a major racist space Karen.  She looks at Spock and refuses to participate in a mission with him.  After intervention of Captain Kirk and Commodore Stone, who is Kirk’s CO from “Court Martial” and also Tremain’s boyfriend, she is forced to go along with the mission.  When she is not around Vulcans, Tremain is actually a very pleasant and interesting person.  McCoy even finds himself falling in love with her in spite of her clear bigotry.   McCoy decides to research this under his duty to evaluate all incoming personnel as Chief Medical Officer.  He discovers her husband served on the USS Calypso, under the command of Captain Selik.  Selik was a Vulcan who had served in Starfleet for 40 years.  His ship encountered some parasitic lifeforms who started to “eat” their ship causing everything to break down.  With a rescue ship to far away and the risk of such a ship also getting infected the Captain decided to order the ship to self-destruct. 

McCoy tires to present his findings to the Captain and First Officer, but it turns out his research was a little short.  Spock had already found out about the husband, and unlike McCoy continued to research where he learned of Tremain’s parents also being on that ship.  This makes McCoy feel like a fool and Kirk is not happy.  Elsewhere the bigots of the Enterprise (I can’t believe I said that) all approach Tremain looking to make her their leader.  She tells them that they are all stupid and takes the time to explain to each one why they are so.  Tremain’s is a lot more charismatic than the traditional bigot. (I will talk more about that in my additional thoughts section.)  In sickbay, Chapel gives Tremain a piece of her mind and in doing so does more to embarrass Spock than anything Tremain could do.  It reminds me of the Mantis tries to defend Drax in Guardians 3.

In the final analysis Kirk and McCoy agree that although Tremain’s attitude and bigotry would prevent her from a regular posting on the Enterprise, given her expertise and the time sensitivity of their mission she will suffice long enough to get the mission done.  Kirk assigns both Spock and Tremain to joint command of the mission.  Tremain remains unhappy about it.

The landing party heads down to the planet and sets up camp as they get ready to observe the native Arachnians.  However, in a short period of time their camp is over run by a group of Arachnians.  Nearly everyone in the party is killed, two are severally wounded, and only Spock and Tremain escape unscathed.  They request an emergency beam out but the Romulans have entered this system and the Enterprise has its shields up and cannot help them.  

Kirk tires to reason with the Romulans but they are not listening.  The reasons for the Romulans’ refusal are that given their past encounters they don’t trust Kirk, and internal Romulan politics.  The Commander’s family is on the out due to his second in command and son refusing to marry a proconsul’s daughter.   They have been given a mission with a high rate of failure: go against Captain Kirk.  In the meantime Spock and Tremain try to help their fallen crewmates.

Romulans have had many injuries against the hands of Kirk

The two injured landing party members die, which sours Kirk on the Romulans and starts talking with them a little less diplomatically.  To make matters worse Spock is injured by an Arachnian.  Spock is now dying of Archnian venom like his lost crewmates.  In an act of desperation Spock forces a mind meld with the Archnian.  This turns out to be a mistake because the Archnians are just animals just like many already thought, and Spock’s mind meld with such a creature makes him think he is one of them.  Despite her bigotry, Tremain decides to risk her own sanity to help Spock.  She puts her hand to his face and began the mind meld on herself.  This kills two birds with one stone.  Tremain is able to guide Spock back to sanity, and we learn the truth of Tremain’s bias.  Although the loss of her husband and parents under a Vulcan’s command was traumatic.  However the true loss was the Vulcan Captain himself.  She was already set to break up with her husband as their marriage was all but officially over.  She had found herself falling in love with their commanding officer but she never told him.  This led her never to want to be around anyone who reminded her of him creating her bias of all Vulcans.  After this mind meld therapy with Spock she resolves to change her ways.     

Mind melds can be helpful

Kirk decides despite the Romulans he will try to rescue them anyway.  He signals his intentions to the Romulans reminding them of the consequences if they are attacked.  The Romulans decide to let them try and monitored to make sure that was all they would do.  With his missing crewmembers returned Kirk tells the Romulans the planet is theirs and leaves but not before shouting off a few insults at their intelligence.  With Spock better he has a meeting with McCoy and Tremain to smooth everything over.  Tremain vows to resolve her issues with Vulcans but as far as romance goes she is not sure if she will be with Stone, McCoy, or anyone. 

Additional thoughts: The story begins with an interesting concept.  How would boundaries in space even work?  A two dimensional map about space is even worse than one about Earth.  How far up and around exist the boundary of the Neutral Zone between the United Federation of Planets and the Romulan Star Empire?  The idea that the treaty would create some natural markers that might seem long term but could later shift and change makes for a good story. 

So onto a small topic: Dr. McCoy’s rank.  In classic Star Trek McCoy was always a lieutenant commander.  I noted in my first Animated Series review about “More Tribbles, More Trouble” McCoy’s rank insignia was that of a commander.  I immediately wondered if McCoy had been promoted or if it was just an animation error.  There plenty of animation errors so it wasn’t absurd to think that, heck even the live action series had visual errors.  Mr. Spock wore the stripes of a full commander all through season 1, but he was also promoted to that rank off screen before the start of season 2.  In this book Tremain’s rank is given as a full commander and it is stated that she has the same rank of both Spock and McCoy.  So it looks like the country doctor got promoted.

Dr. McCoy, a full commander

McCoy finds Tremain very attractive and desirable, but he detests her attitude toward Spock and he knows so long as it exists she is not someone he can have a future with.  It’s a good show of solidarity between McCoy and Spock.  McCoy may like to tease Spock about being a Vulcan but he shuts up about it after Tremain demonstrates her intolerance.  He is not going to give her an inch so she can take a mile.  I do like how the author made Tremain a compelling character in spite of her bigotry.  It is very easy to get into the mindset that all bigots are KKK members, it does us a disservice because we may not feel the need to examine some of our own beliefs since bigots are just the “bad” people.  When McCoy is talking with Tremain alone he and the reader find her to be such a fascinating and charismatic person, until the subject of Vulcans comes up.  The whole thing reminds me of a biography I read about John F. Kennedy.  While he was in the Senate, Kennedy would befriend these Southern Senators who he would find that they would have shared mutual interests; he would have interesting discussions with them, and find them pleasant company.  Until the subject of African-Americans came up, and then Kennedy told his aides they transformed into different people. 

  Tremain tells McCoy he was wrong about the death of her husband causing her distain because the love was out of their marriage and the term was going to expire.  The very concept of a term marriage is interesting.  You don’t have to worry about a nasty divorce.  If it’s not working out then you simply don’t renew. 

I found the failed recruitment of Tremain by the bigots of the Enterprise an interesting read.  Tremain puts every one of them in their place from the Admiral’s baby to the I-am-jealous-of-Chapel-Nurse.  Is it just me or does Engineer Shigeda belong in the Terran Empire of the mirror universe?  

Now Starfleet is not exactly a military organization but it’s structured like one.  To me you would think a joint command is a bad idea.  I mean who is the person who you hold accountable.  It is like a ship having two captains. Then on top of that you make the joint commanders two people who hate each other.  Personally I thought Kirk would make Tremain the final word on the area of expertise and Spock should be in charge of the overall mission.  Clearly Kirk should think about it since the joint command ended with everyone under them getting killed.

Now it was clear that the Romulan Star Empire is based on the Roman Empire.  They have similar titles and their home worlds are Romulus and Remus. This book takes that a bit farther by giving the Romulans all Romanized names.  Where elsewhere in the franchise their names sound similar to Vulcans, but here they are Maximinus and Licinius Thrax.

I mentioned earlier that McCoy ceased his teasing of Spock the moment Tremain started her attack.  It was interesting to have Spock’s internal monologue compare the two.  Despite her intense bigotry or maybe because of it, Spock actually enjoys goading her more than McCoy.  Originally this book was a draft for a potential episode now clearly the book format allows for a more in depth story than a sixty-minutes-plus-commercials episode but I would have loved to see Spock vs. Tremain live action. 

One of the best parts of the book to me was in the way the Romulans talk about Kirk to themselves.  To them Kirk is horror who can’t be trusted and will pull victories out of the thin air through treachery.  The Commander even suspects the Proconsul may have set this up on purpose to get rid of him King David style. Considering what happened in both “The Deadly Years” and “The Enterprise Incident” I don’t blame the Romulans for not trusting Kirk at all.  One of the flaws I found it the book “The Price of the Phoenix” was the Romulans, especially our favorite lady commander, where a little too nice and friendly given their history together.  

Spock’s attempted mind meld with the Arachnian and the consequence reminded me of the short story “The Hunting” in the first New Voyages volume.  I don’t know if the author read that story but it was a nice consistency. 

The most amazing part of this story was its end.  In a more traditional Star Trek story we would have learned that Arachnians were true intelligent and just a different type of intelligence like the Horta from “The Devil in the Dark.”  This would force Kirk to find a way to win freedom for the planet for the Romulans at the last minute.  But no, they are just dumb animals and Kirk just lets them have the planet because it was worthless.  Too bad for everyone who got red-shirted for a planet that was useless to the Federation.     

Should it be canon: Yes, I think this a great story; it is a self-contained adventure like any traditional Star Trek episode, so it doesn’t step on the toes of any other established canon.  I cannot see any reasonable objection. 

Cover Art: The cover has McCoy, Tremain, and Spock on the bottom of the cover.  Tremain is to McCoy’s right (viewer’s left), Spock is on the other side.  Spock’s image is larger than the other two.  Above them is a native Arachnian.

Final Grade: Final Grade 5 of 5