Star Trek 2 (Novel)
| Series | Star Trek |
| Published by | Bantam Books |
| Previous | Star Trek 1 (Blish01) |
| Next | Mission to Horatius (TOSMTH) |
| Written by | James Blish |
| Released | Feb 1968 |
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The Ultimate Trip! Worlds Beyond Time! Worlds Beyond Ken!
Based on the exciting NBC-TV series created by Gene Roddenberry
Eight journeys into the unexpected with the crew of the Starship Enterprise. Travel to the unexplored reaches of outer space, to worlds where humans are an alien race and the unusual is routine. Astonishing new worlds of strange beings, bizarre customs, unknown dangers and awesome excitement.
- A world where war is fought by computers!
- A world inhabited by great lizard-like creatures of conquest!
- A world ravaged by a relentless plague of madness and death!
- A world where life has developed beyond the need for physical bodies!
Travel now to the bold new worlds of tomorrow.
Circling the Solar Sphere in Search of New Worlds and High Adventure
Captain James Kirk—Assigned to the top position in Space Service—Starship Command—Kirk alone must make decisions in his contact with other worlds that can affect the future course of civilization throughout the Universe.
Science Officer Spock—Inheriting a precise, logical thinking pattern from his father, a native of the planet Vulcan, Mr. Spock maintains a dangerous Earth trait… an intense curiousity about things of alien origin.
Lt. Uhura—Easily the most popular member of the crew, the truly "out-of-this-world" female has drawn the important assignment of scan engineer on her first mission in deep space.
With a crew of 400 skilled specialists, the mammoth space ship Enterprise blasts off for intergalactic intrigue in the unexplored realms of outer space.
Arena
Adapted from the episode Arena.
Teleplay by Gene L. Coon
Story by Fredric Brown
Captain Kirk receives a request from Commodore Travers to visit the Star Fleet base on the new colony at Cestus III. Upon arriving, Kirk finds the base completely destroyed. Suddenly Kirk and his landing party are ambushed; the call was a trap, set by the attackers. The Enterprise follows the enemy ship, but the two vessels intrude upon the territory of the powerful Metrons, who decide to settle the conflict by having Kirk fight the alien commander, a Gorn, in single combat: the loser's ship will be destroyed. The Gorn is a human-sized, immensely strong reptilian being, as resourceful as Kirk in battle. The captain manages to construct a weapon with which he defeats the Gorn—and his refusal to kill his defeated opponent impresses the Metrons. Perhaps one day, they tell Kirk, the Federation may be mature enough to meet them as friends and equals.
Related Data
A Taste of Armageddon
Adapted from the episode A Taste of Armageddon
Teleplay by Robert Hamner and Gene L. Coon
Story by Robert Hamner
The Enterprise journeys to planet Eminiar VII to establish diplomatic contact. Although the Eminians warn Captain Kirk against visiting, at the insistence of Federation Ambassador Robert Fox, a landing party beams down. They discover Eminiar has been at war for centuries with its neighbor world, Vendikar. Suddenly, Kirk is informed that the Enterprise has been declared a "casualty," and all aboard her are considered dead. Through Eminiar's council head, Anan 7, and a young woman named Mea 3, Kirk learns that the "war" is fought with computers: "casualties" on both planets willingly enter antimatter chambers and die to prevent all-out destruction. After the landing party is imprisoned, Ambassador Fox beams down and learns of the situation—whereupon Kirk and Spock escape and destroy Eminiar's computers. Now, Kirk tells the Eminiars, they will have to fight their war for real. To escape the horrors of material destruction, the two worlds, with the aid of Ambassador Fox, begin to negotiate for peace.
Related Data
Tomorrow is Yesterday
Adapted from the episode Tomorrow is Yesterday.
Written by D.C. Fontana.
After an encounter with the gravitational forces of a "black star," the Enterprise is hurled backward in time to the twentieth century. Flying over Nebraska, the starship is sighted and classified as a UFO, and Air Force pilot Captain John Christopher photographs the Enterprise with his jet's wing cameras. When his jet is accidentally destroyed by the starship's tractor beam, he is transported aboard. After first deciding that it would not alter history if Christopher never returned to Earth, Spock then discovers that Captain Sean Geoffrey Christopher, the pilot's as-yet-unborn son, will lead an important expedition into space.
This leaves Kirk and crew with three large problems: retrieving the film that shows the Enterprise in Earth's atmosphere; getting the pilot back where he belongs; and returning to their own time without changing history. After Sulu, Kirk, and Spock surreptitiously obtain the film, Scotty duplicates the "slingshot effect" responsible for their temporal displacement. Christopher is returned to his jet, and the Enterprise returns home.
Related Data
Errand of Mercy
Adapted from the episode Errand of Mercy.
Written by Gene L. Coon.
As hostilities between the United Federation of Planets and the Klingon Empire reach their peak, the Enterprise is dispatched to the strategically located planet Organia. The Organian Council of Elders, five smiling, elderly men, seem strangely unconcerned about the prospect of war centering about their planet. Klingon Commander Kor leads an occupation force in an invasion of Organia. Kirk and Spock go undercover, disguised as two traders, but are betrayed by the council and condemned to death. The Organians rescue them very easily. As the moment of all-out war approaches, the Organians reveal themselves as omnipotent beings of pure energy. Using their mental abilities, they neutralize all weapons. Kirk realizes with horror that part of him had been anticipating the hostilities; he is also relieved to know that from now on the Organians will be watching to see that things do not get out of hand.
Related Data
Court Martial
Adapted from the episode Court Martial.
Teleplay by Don M. Mankiewicz and Steven W. Carabatsos.
Story by Don M. Mankiewicz.
During an ion storm, the Enterprise takes a severe buffeting and Records Officer Ben Finney enters the starship's ion pod to take important readings. When the storm makes it necessary to jettison the pod, Captain Kirk follows normal procedures and warns Finney to evacuate. The pod is jettisoned, with Finney apparently still inside. At Starbase 11, Commodore L.T. Stone institutes a court martial against Kirk after discovering that computer records show that the captain did not give Finney an adequate chance to escape from the pod. Lieutenant Areel Shaw, the prosecuting attorney and an old girlfriend of Kirk's, retains the brilliant but eccentric lawyer Samuel Cogley to defend the captain. Although the evidence is against Kirk, Mr. Spock refuses to believe that his captain did not go by the rules. The Vulcan decides that the Enterprise computer's evidence is wrong. He plays chess with the computer, winning several games, and thereby discovers the machine's programming has been altered. Finney is actually alive, in hiding aboard the ship: due to an old grudge, he had hoped to fake his death to discredit Kirk.
Related Data
Operation—Annihilate!
Adapted from the episode Operation -- Annihilate!.
Written by Steven W. Carabatsos.
The planet Deneva is in the path of an interplanetary epidemic of mass insanity. Approaching the planet, the Enterprise intercepts a message from a Denevan pilot who deliberately steers his ship into the sun—destroying himself and an unknown danger. Beaming down with a landing party, Kirk discovers that Deneva has been invaded by bat-size, amoeba-like creatures that intertwine with the humanoid nervous system, manipulating their victims by causing excruciating pain. Spock is attacked and infected by one of the creatures. After determining that the creatures are vulnerable to magnetic fields, Spock reveals that, thanks to his neural link to the creatures, he has learned that they are all controlled by a central hive, located on their homeworld in the Orion sector. The Enterprise travels to that planet, and destroys it, killing the hive and eliminating the threat to the galaxy.
NOTE: The story was heavily modified in its novelized version, as indicated by the revised ending summarized above, and Kirk's brother and nephew were completely eliminated from the story. Aurelan became instead an unrelated Denevan, the sister of the Denevan pilot who died at the beginning of the story.
Related Data
The City on the Edge of Forever
Adapted from the episode The City on the Edge of Forever.
Written by Harlan Ellison.
Doctor McCoy accidentally injects himself with an overdose of cordrazine. Delirious, he transports down to the planet below, to which the Enterprise has come to investigate strange ripples in time. Beaming down with a landing party, Kirk and Spock discover a living machine known as the Guardian of Forever. When McCoy leaps through the machine's portal, he vanishes into Earth's past. History is changed and the Enterprise ceases to exist. Hoping to undo the damage to history, Kirk and Spock leap through the device, into Depression-era New York City. There, Kirk meets and falls in love with Edith Keeler, a progressive social worker. Spock manages to use vintage 1930 equipment to construct a tricorder monitoring device, and while replaying footage from the machine, he discovers that Keeler has two possible futures: she will either begin a pacifist movement that will delay America's entry into World War II long enough for the Nazis to win, or she will die in a traffic accident. Kirk commits the most difficult act of his life when he prevents McCoy from saving her. Returning through space and time, Kirk, Spock, and McCoy discover they succeeded, and history has been restored.
Related Data
Space Seed
Adapted from the episode Space Seed.
Teleplay by Gene L. Coon and Carey Wilber.
Story by Carey Wilber.
The Enterprise discovers a "sleeper ship" from the late twentieth century. The crewmembers are found in a state of suspended animation, and the leader, a magnetic individual named Kahn, is revived. Ship's historian Marla McGivers is strongly attracted to the man — whom Spock soon identifies as Sibahl Khan Noonien, the most dynamic and dangerous of the artificially bred men of the 1990s — and once absolute ruler of more than a quarter of Earth. With Marla's aid, Khan, supremely contemptuous of the Enterprise crew — especially Captain Kirk—revives his crew and takes the ship. But when she realizes Khan intends to kill those who will not aid him, Marla rescues the captain. Kirk then unleashes anesthetic gas throughout the occupied sections of the ship and recaptures the Enterprise. He gives Khan and his people the choice of facing arrest and incarceration or colonizing a virgin and hostile planet. Khan chooses to be a colonist, and Marla elects to go with him. Spock wonders what will come from these "seeds" the Enterprise has planted.
